Executive summary: The Center for Election Science (CES) argues that approval voting—a simple system letting voters select all candidates they support—offers a practical, bipartisan reform to reduce polarization, improve representation, and strengthen democratic decision-making, with 2025 marking major legislative and pilot progress in Utah and Maryland.
Key points:
CES promotes approval voting as a low-cost, voter-friendly alternative that eliminates vote splitting and better reflects majority preferences.
The organization positions approval voting as a meta-level intervention supporting effective altruist priorities by improving governance quality and policy tractability.
In 2025, CES engaged in five states, ran two active legislative efforts in Maryland and Utah, and developed pilots in Frederick and Cumberland, Maryland.
The Utah special election represented the first live U.S. use of approval voting to select a sitting officeholder, providing a national proof point.
Maryland research showed 74.6% voter support for election reform and cross-partisan appeal for approval voting.
CES expanded research, communications, and donor infrastructure, and seeks an additional $350,000 to scale pilots, legislative support, and voter education through 2026.
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Executive summary: The Center for Election Science (CES) argues that approval voting—a simple system letting voters select all candidates they support—offers a practical, bipartisan reform to reduce polarization, improve representation, and strengthen democratic decision-making, with 2025 marking major legislative and pilot progress in Utah and Maryland.
Key points:
CES promotes approval voting as a low-cost, voter-friendly alternative that eliminates vote splitting and better reflects majority preferences.
The organization positions approval voting as a meta-level intervention supporting effective altruist priorities by improving governance quality and policy tractability.
In 2025, CES engaged in five states, ran two active legislative efforts in Maryland and Utah, and developed pilots in Frederick and Cumberland, Maryland.
The Utah special election represented the first live U.S. use of approval voting to select a sitting officeholder, providing a national proof point.
Maryland research showed 74.6% voter support for election reform and cross-partisan appeal for approval voting.
CES expanded research, communications, and donor infrastructure, and seeks an additional $350,000 to scale pilots, legislative support, and voter education through 2026.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.