Approval voting

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Single-winner methods Single vote - plurality methods First preference plurality (FPP) Two-round (US: Jungle primary) Partisan primary Instant-runoff UK: Alternative vote (AV) US: Ranked-choice (RCV) Condorcet methods Condorcet-IRV Round-robin voting Minimax Schulze Ranked pairs Maximal lottery Positional voting Plurality (el. IRV) Borda count (el. Baldwin, Mdn. Bucklin) Antiplurality (el. Coombs) Cardinal voting Score voting Approval voting Majority judgment STAR voting
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This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (March 2025)

Approval voting is a single-winner rated voting system where voters can approve of all the candidates as they like instead of choosing one. The method is designed to eliminate vote-splitting while keeping election administration simple and easy-to-count (requiring only a single score for each candidate). Approval voting has been used in both organizational and political elections^[which?] to improve representativeness and voter satisfaction.

Critics of approval voting have argued the simple ballot format is a disadvantage, as it forces a binary choice for each candidate (instead of the expressive grades of other rated voting rules).