[EM] Statement from the CAV/AAV Board

[Rob LeGrand]

A Summary of the Actions of the CAV Board Meeting of August 12, 2005

The Board of Citizens for Approval Voting (CAV) has decided against
a major reorganization of CAV and Americans for Approval Voting
(AAV).  But it has broadened the mission statement to allow other
groups to work with CAV/AAV for the adoption of improved voting
systems and also to address other forms of elections, such as
multiwinner elections and general ballot questions, including
citizen initiatives and bond-package voting in referenda.

Although still subject to change, the approved plan is that CAV will
remain a non-profit organization that works to promote Approval
Voting to an international audience, and to spur scientific study of
all voting systems so that best practices can be identified.

AAV remains a political-action organization that works for the
adoption of legislation in the United States to enact Approval
Voting.  AAV will also support the adoption of any other voting
system that the Board and members agree is clearly superior to some
existing voting system.  To this end, our current view is that Range
Voting, Condorcet (a.k.a. IRV-P) and LeGrand IRV (a.k.a. BTR-IRV)
join Approval Voting as superior voting systems, whereas Borda, STV,
standard IRV and Plurality Voting are not.  Of course,
implementation details can have drastic impacts on any voting
system, and therefore AAV will evaluate all legislation related to
the adoption of new voting systems on a case-by-case basis.

Both CAV and AAV look forward to cooperating with other election-
reform groups.  We hope to foster a spirit of cooperation and open-
mindedness.  We do not feel that the CAV name precludes or hinders
such cooperation.  In fact, we applaud recent proposals to create a
new Center for Range Voting (CRV), as suggested by Warren Smith and
supported by Jan Kok and others.

We look forward to working closely with CRV and other voting-reform
organizations.  We would also be interested in the possibility of
joining an umbrella organization dedicated to voting-system reform.
In addition, we remain open to working with the Center for Voting
and Democracy, especially if they adopt one of the improved
formulations for IRV that have emerged recently.

At this stage, we believe that Approval Voting's advantages are
strong enough to redouble our efforts for its adoption in public
elections.  The Board discussed several implementation strategies
and believe that it would be useful to target party caucuses and
primaries, as has been proposed by Warren Smith (e.g., Iowa '08).
We also agree that more public-poll experiments, which compare
outcomes under different voting systems, are worthy of support.

Finally, the Board has approved a plan to complete the incorporation
of the CAV and AAV organizations and to add members to the Boards of
the respective bodies as soon as possible.  Some possible nominees
have been discussed, but we also call on our members and supporters
to put forward additional names.

END OF STATEMENT

--
Rob LeGrand, psephologist
rob at approvalvoting.org
Citizens for Approval Voting
http://www.approvalvoting.org/


		
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