St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Nonprofit donates $75,000 to group trying to change St. Louis voting method”

“A group pushing to change how the city of St. Louis elects its leaders received $75,000 from an election science nonprofit to fund its signature-gathering effort to place the measure on the March 2020 ballot.

A new group called STL Approves wants to change the St. Louis election system to institute ‘approval voting’ for the municipal offices of mayor, president of the board of aldermen, comptroller and members of the board of aldermen.

The Center for Election Science [who is funding the effort so far] has been around since early 2011 and is dedicated to changing how elections are run in the U.S. [Director Aaron] Hamlin, who called the prevailing plurality voting systems ‘horrendous,’ said the group studied several voting methods before landing on approval voting as one that could be easily implemented and that simulations suggest will elect more ‘consensus-style’ candidates.

‘Approval voting does a much better job of electing voters’ honest favorites,’ [CES Philanthropy Director Kirsten] Elliott said.

‘Even if most voters choose only one candidate, which is possible, it’s still very important that they have the opportunity to choose more than one when it’s necessary,’ Hamlin said.”

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