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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

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  1. To improve voter turnout we should stop forcing voters into a corner.
    We should simply drop the rule on “spoiled ballots” and let people freely vote for as many options on their ballot as they want, with the winner still being the one that gets the most votes.
    This is known as “Approval Voting” because the votes — the marks on the ballot, not the entire ballot itself — indicates that the voter approves of those candidates.
    Approval Voting would allow people to vote for their preferred choice AND for any other choices that they consider acceptable. Approval Voting is like Ranked Ballots but without the “dance” of dealing with rankings.
    Approval Voting is simple to explain, and — since it could use the same ballots we have today — it’s just as simple for counting votes.

    Approval Voting could change peoples’ attitude about elections.
    When people have been freed from being forced to choose just one single “safe” candidate, freed from the unfairness of “vote splitting” and freed from the mental gymnastics of “strategic voting” to try to block candidates that they fear, then they will be more willing to actually go out and vote.