[EM] Approval election example

[Tom Ruen]

Dear Election Enthusiasts,

I would like to test an Approval Voting election. I need voters!

Last December I ran an IRV election, asking people to pick their favorite
months. I considered this a "hard" election, with 12 candidates which might
possibly have nearly equal support. Since then, I've tallied 102 ballots in
that election and the results were very well ordered, no cycles in Condorcet
pairs.

I've been able to test many methods on that election, but approval is not
one of them because voters must use a different strategy. Voters can
consider a ranking, but must also decide where the support cutoff will be.

Approval is just as simple as Plurality to implement, and it is more likely
to pick a majority winner. There is no need to fear spoiler candidates since
voters are free to support as many of their favorites as they choose. Bullet
voting and compromise are both possible for voters as they like.

This is an experiment on voter strategy and how approval behaves with real
voters. It's up to you!

Please vote and ask other friends and family to vote too. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Tom Ruen

******* Approval election:

Question:
  What are your favorite months?

How to vote:
    Reply to: tomruen at itascacg.com
    Copy the ballot below.
    Put an X after every month that you want to support.
    You may vote for as many or few as you like, including all or none!
    Optionally, please add a unique "voter name" or alias to help me
identify ballots.

How a winner is picked:
  1. If no month has majority approval, a plurality winner will be declared.
  2. Assume there would be a runoff election if more than one month have
majority approval.

DEADLINE:
  Saturday, March 17th. (St Patrick's Day!)

RESULTS:
  Will be announced after the deadline and an online link to the ballot data
will be offered.

******* START BALLOT ******
Voter name: --->
*********
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
******* END BALLOT ******