Founders | Clay Shentrup Aaron Hamlin Dr. Warren D. Smith [1] |
---|---|
Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization |
Purpose | Promoting electoral reform in the United States |
Headquarters | Remote/Distributed, U.S. |
Chief Executive Officer | Nina Taylor [2] |
Chair Michael Ruvinsky Vice Chair John Hegeman Treasurer LaShana Lewis, Secretary Justine Metz Directors Kristine Reeves Sara Ponzio "Meet the Team". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved February 27, 2024.</ref> | |
Revenue | $2.1 million (2022) [3] |
Website | electionscience.org |
The Center for Election Science (CES) is an American 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on voter education and promoting election science. [4] [5] [6] [7] The organization promotes electoral systems favored by social choice theorists, primarily cardinal voting methods such as approval [8] and score voting. [9] They have their early roots in effective altruism. [10] [11]
The Center for Election Science helped pass approval voting in the city of Fargo, North Dakota, during the 2018 elections alongside Reform Fargo. [12] In St. Louis, Missouri, the organization passed an approval voting law in 2020 with the help of St. Louis Approves. [13] [14] [15]
The Center argues that approval voting is superior to other proposed electoral reforms for multiple reasons, including accuracy, simplicity, and tractability. [16] They say approval voting will elect more consensus winners, which it contends traditional runoffs and instant-runoff ranked methods don't allow, because they eliminate candidates with low first-preference support but broad support in general. [17] [18] [19]
They further argue that the system's adherence to the favorite betrayal criterion is highly desirable, because it allows voters to safely give their true favorite maximum support without worrying that voting insincerely could give them a better overall result. [16]
CES was founded in 2011 by Clay Shentrup, Aaron Hamlin, and Warren D. Smith. [1] The Center achieved status as a 501(c)3 in 2012 and began soliciting donations. The board of directors for that year consisted of:
They focused on building an online and in-person presence by writing articles and giving presentations to reform organizations, a notable event being Hamlin's interview with Kenneth Arrow of Arrow's theorem fame. [20]
In December 2017 they received a grant from Open Philanthropy totaling $598,600. [21] This funding was used to hire the director, Aaron Hamlin, to a full-time position, along with a few other staff members. The organization also used this funding to support Reform Fargo in their efforts to switch Fargo elections to approval voting. [22]
Reform Fargo was founded by Jed Limke after serving on a voting reform task force created by the City Commission. The task force recommended the City Commission switch to approval voting, but the commission refused to put the reform on the ballot. With the assistance of The Center for Election Science, Limke and others went on to run an educational campaign about approval voting. They then collected 2,600 signatures and put approval voting up for referendum. The measure appeared on the ballot on November 6, 2018, and passed with 63.5% of the vote in favor of the change. [23] [24]
In February 2019, the organization received a second grant from Open Philanthropy, totaling $1.8 million. [25] This enabled them to support STL Approves in their venture to switch St. Louis to approval voting. Election Science was just one of many organizations to endorse the effort, including Show Me Integrity and The League of Women Voters. [26] The ballot measure put forth to switch St. Louis to approval voting, proposition D, passed on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, with 68.1% in favor. [27]
The following year, The Center awarded five grants to voting reform organizations focused on Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, Missouri, and Utah. The grants were intended to fund polling and legal services for potential campaigns. [28]
Of those exploratory grants, Seattle eventually resulted in a ballot measure, championed by Seattle Approves, and an effort in Missouri is still underway. Due to the process by which ballot measures are adopted in Seattle, the city council added instant runoff voting as a direct rival. [29] Seattle voters elected to change their voting system by a slim margin–154,424 in favor, 148,901 against–and chose instant runoff over approval. [30]
In January 2024, The Center brought on Nina Taylor as Chief Executive Officer. [31]
The Center is involved in supporting Missouri Agrees, a nonprofit looking to amend the Missouri constitution and switch all elections to approval voting. Their plan is to collect signatures for a ballot initiative and convince the voters to approve the measure. [32]
Approval voting is an electoral system in which voters can select any number of candidates instead of selecting only one.
The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian result, not a simple-plurality result as under first past the post. Under the two-round election system, the election process usually proceeds to a second round only if in the first round no candidate received an absolute majority of votes cast, or some other lower prescribed percentage. Under the two-round system, usually only the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round, or only those candidates who received above a prescribed proportion of the votes, are candidates in the second round. Other candidates are excluded from the second round.
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be possible to win an election by winning a sufficient number of such write-in votes, which count equally as if the person were formally listed on the ballot.
FairVote is a 501(c)(3) organization that researches and advocates for electoral reform in the United States.
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. Nonpartisan blanket primaries are slightly different from most other elections systems with two rounds/a runoff, also known as "jungle primaries" , in a few ways. The first round of a nonpartisan blanket primary is officially the "primary." Round two is the "general election." Round two must be held, even if one candidate receives a majority in the first round.
Electoral reform in the United States refers to efforts to change American elections and the electoral system used in the United States.
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) can refer to one of several ranked voting methods used in some cities and states in the United States. The term is not strictly defined, but most often refers to instant-runoff voting (IRV) or single transferable vote (STV).
The 2008 United States presidential election in Missouri was held on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election, which took place throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 11 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen is the lawmaking body of St. Louis, an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. The Board consists of 14 alderpersons, one elected by each of the city's 14 wards. The President of the Board is a separate position elected by all city voters with the same voting power as an alderperson, and serves as the body's presiding officer.
Instant-runoff voting (IRV), also known as plurality with elimination or plurality loser, is a ranked-choice voting system that modifies plurality by repeatedly eliminating the last-place winner until only one candidate is left. In the United Kingdom, it is generally called the alternative vote (AV). In the United States, IRV is often referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV), by way of conflation with ranked voting systems in general.
Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results.
The 2009 Burlington mayoral election was held in March 2009 for the city of Burlington, Vermont. This was the second mayoral election since the city's 2005 change to instant-runoff voting (IRV), after the 2006 mayoral election. In the 2009 election, incumbent Burlington mayor won reelection as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party, defeating Kurt Wright in the final round with 48% of the vote. The election created a controversy over several election pathologies, after Kiss was declared winner as a result of 750 votes cast against his candidacy, over the objections of the 54% of Burlington voters who had preferred Andy Montroll.
A unified primary is an electoral system for narrowing the field of candidates for a single-winner election, similar to a nonpartisan blanket primary, but using approval voting for the first round, advancing the top-two candidates, allowing voters to confirm the majority-supported candidate in the general election.
The 2016 United States presidential election in Missouri was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Missouri voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. Missouri has 10 electoral votes in the Electoral College.
John Robert "Jay" Ashcroft is an American attorney, engineer and politician serving as the 40th and current Secretary of State of Missouri since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he is the son of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Cannabis in Missouri is legal for recreational use. A ballot initiative to legalize recreational use, Amendment 3, passed by a 53–47 margin on November 8, 2022. Possession for adults 21 and over became legal on December 8, 2022, with the first licensed sales occurring on February 3, 2023.
STAR voting is an electoral system for single-seat elections. The name stands for "Score then Automatic Runoff", referring to the fact that this system is a combination of score voting, to pick two finalists with the highest total scores, followed by an "automatic runoff" in which the finalist who is preferred on more ballots wins. It is a type of cardinal voting electoral system.
The 2021 St. Louis mayoral election occurred in two stages, with a unified primary on March 2, 2021, and a two-candidate general election on April 6, 2021. Incumbent Democratic mayor Lyda Krewson was eligible to seek re-election to a second term in office, but chose to retire.
2022 Missouri Constitutional Amendment 3, also known as the Marijuana Legalization Initiative, was a ballot measure to amend the Constitution of Missouri to legalize cannabis at the state level in Missouri. The measure was on the November 7, 2022, general ballot and was approved by voters with a margin of 53–47 percent.
A top-four primary or top-four ranked-choice voting is an election method using a nonpartisan blanket primary where up to four candidates, those with the most votes, advance from a first round of FPTP voting, regardless of the political party. The round two (general) election, held some weeks later, uses instant-runoff voting to confirm a winner among the top set of candidates.
Another example is voting system reform. I'll give a shoutout to an organization you covered a few weeks ago, the Center for Election Science.