Monday, February 25, 2013

Approval Voting Fundraiser

This last weekend, the Center for Election Science—the world's largest (only?) approval voting advocacy group—launched a fundraiser through Indiegogo. The goal is to raise $12,375 (a very precise amount; don't you love an organization run by math geeks?) in order to have a professional, high-quality video produced about the advantages of approval voting, which will then be entered in the MacArthur Foundation's Looking@Democracy contest. Or, in short, please watch this video for a fundraiser for a video for a fundraiser.

There are a number of perks available for different funding levels. I put in $100 in order to get a signed copy of Gaming the Vote, the book that first convinced me of the benefits of approval voting. I must have bought the book three or four times by now, but I keep giving my copies away to friends and local politicians. I'll definitely be keeping this one though!

Even if you can only contribute $1, it would be warmly welcomed, and it would mean a lot to me, personally. I've been at this for four years now (some CES supporters have been working towards this much longer!) and although one little video may not seem like much, it marks the difference between being just a bunch of people complaining about politics on the internet, and being real advocates for change. Help us do something important.

Maybe you haven't heard the advantages of approval voting, or maybe you could use a recap. Approval voting:

  • Always lets you vote for your favorite
  • Never has spoilers
  • Is simpler than any rank-based voting method
  • Encourages consensus winners
  • Lets 3rd parties earn their true level of support

We have real-world and theory-backed evidence to support all of these claims. We just need a little bit of help from you to get the word out.