Approval Voting - History & Fun Facts
History
Approval voting was developed as the hallmarks of a successful government in Renaissance Venice and Athens Sparta. Today, these two empires are known for their impressive government and democratic systems. While approval voting was most likely used since ancient times, it was not defined until the late 20th century. In 1968, a man called Guy Otwell explicitly defined the meaning of approval voting, and during the 70s, many scientists and mathematicians continued developing their own definitions of this voting methodology. In the 80s, several prolific scientific and engineering societies, including the Mathematical Association of America and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, formally recognized approval voting.
Approval voting is used globally. It has been used in thousands of elections in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 80s, and since 1979, China has used approval voting to elect members to its National People's Congress.
The first four American presidents were elected using approval voting. The candidate with the second most amount of votes became the Vice-President.
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, & James Madison
To elect the UN Secretary General, approval voting is used. However, rather than "approve" and "disapprove" to convey preference for the future elected UN Secretary General, the vocabulary of "encourage" and "discourage" was developed, as it was more diplomatic and polite.
San Francisco State University and Dartmouth College are the only two American institutions of higher education to implement approval voting. SFSU for their faculty electorate, library, and academic senate, and Dartmouth for their student assembly.
The Catholic Church used approval voting to elect the pope for centuries. Today, the pope is elected under ⅔ majority win.
