Seattle Approves started with the question, “How can we make Seattle’s elections as representative as possible?”

The answer is a tiny change called Approval Voting: let voters support as many candidates as they want, like this example ballot.

With this tiny change, we will:

• Eliminate Seattle’s endemic vote-splitting problem. Similar candidates will no longer “split the vote” and both lose.
• Match the preferences of voters better than any other system in the United States.
• Turn every election into an honest measurement of how many voters support each candidate. If you’ve ever thought, “I’d like to vote for that candidate, but I’d be throwing away my vote,” you’ve experienced how our current system doesn’t honestly measure voter support.
• Ensure that ballots are simple and accessible to everyone, including under-represented groups like non-native English speakers and voters who are short on time.
• Make politics less divisive. Campaigns won’t fight each other over voters — they’ll fight for a wider base of support.