Voters Approve

A new electoral model called approval voting aims to fix our broken political system

Illustration by New Rules Media and DALL-E.

St. Louis, long divided along racial and economic lines by the "Delmar Divide," implemented approval voting in 2020 to address fractured electoral outcomes and foster broader representation. While praised for its simplicity and inclusiveness, approval voting has faced political backlash, including recent state-level prohibitions, raising questions about its future in Missouri and beyond.

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WASHINGTON — St. Louis, Missouri, like many cities across the United States, has a long history of racial segregation. Here, Black and white communities are separated along Delmar Boulevard, better known to locals as the “Delmar Divide” — Black St. Louisans live to the North and their white counterparts to the South.

The friction between these two parts of the city came into focus during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 when Matt and Patricia McCloskey exited their mansion on Portland Place, a private gated community, while armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun, to confront protestors passing through. The images and video of this altercation immediately went viral.

As long as people can remember, white communities have held power in this city, which has translated into political and economic favor and fortune being damned off from the North while it flowed freely in the South; essentially ensuring that Black communities suffered while white ones prospered. Nearly every measure of social and economic well-being breaks at the Divide, from broadband access to property values to mortality. There’s roughly a 20-year life expectancy gap between the two regions.

Despite St. Louis's shifting demographics in recent years—Black and white demographics are now about equally split in terms of the total population, according to the Census Bureau—the white population continued to win citywide races at the ballot box. Races across the city from mayor to alderman often featured a crowded field of candidates, too, making it nearly impossible for any politician, Black or white, to win a clear majority and a mandate. Between 2015 and 2019, eight city elections saw winners with less than 37% of the vote; five of those winners earned less than 20%.

However, that all changed in 2020 when St. Louis implemented approval voting, a new electoral system in which voters may vote for all candidates they approve of. The candidate receiving the most approval votes wins—it’s that simple. St. Louis Approves, the organization advocating for the change, built a city-wide coalition by attending community events, holding town halls, and knocking on doors to drum up support, which garnered 68% support of the electorate.

Approval Voting 101

The most recent mayoral election in St. Louis in 2021 showcased the city's use of approval voting, a system adopted to provide a more representative and voter-friendly approach to elections, which shifted the dynamics of the St. Louis mayoral race. In this election, voters were empowered to support multiple candidates, providing a clearer picture of overall voter preferences. On average, voters selected 1.6 candidates, suggesting that many embraced the opportunity to choose more than one candidate.

Proponents say the new system also reduced the strategic pressure often associated with "lesser evil" voting, as residents could back their preferred candidates without fear of inadvertently helping their least favorite candidate win. Candidates, in turn, tailored their campaigns to appeal to a wider base of voters, knowing they could garner support even from those who favored another contender as their top choice.

As a result, Tishaura Jones, a Black woman who served as the city’s treasurer, won a broad coalition representing 57% of voters above and below the Delmar Divide for the first time. A map of her approval votes revealed strong backing not only from the North, where she had long been popular but also from significant parts of the South.

“The outcome reflected the diverse preferences of St. Louis residents,” according to Nina Taylor, CEO of the Center for Election Science, a proponent of approval voting. “Overall, the election demonstrated that approval voting could effectively encourage broader participation and dialogue in the city's political process, paving the way for other jurisdictions considering electoral reform.”

Biggest Barriers

The introduction of approval voting in St. Louis was widely praised by voters. A survey conducted by Change Research after the March 2021 election found that 81% of voters appreciated the system's simplicity, and 67% liked expressing their preferences without worrying about whether their favorite candidate could win.

Approval voting has also gained traction beyond St. Louis. Fargo, North Dakota, implemented approval voting in 2018, becoming the first city to adopt it for municipal elections. Internationally, this voting system is also used to elect the United Nations Secretary-General and in decision-making processes by several private-sector organizations and non-governmental entities, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which employs approval voting for electing its leadership. Similarly, various academic institutions and professional organizations have adopted this method to streamline elections and reduce polarization.

Critics, however, have pointed out that the system might disadvantage polarizing candidates who inspire deep loyalty from a subset of voters and tend to outperform in primary elections. In 2022, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen attempted but failed to repeal approval voting, arguing that the new system threatened their power. However, in this year’s Missouri election, voters approved Amendment 7, a constitutional amendment prohibiting ranked-choice or approval voting by a roughly 2-to-1 margin—becoming the 11th state to do so. St. Louis will continue to use approval voting because it was implemented before the statewide ban.

League of Women Voters Missouri President Marilyn McLeod said, "We regret that Amendment 7 was approved by the voters. It was misleading due to the inclusion of the requirement on citizenship to vote (which already is required) and it will prohibit any chance in the future to adapt different ideas on elections that might prove beneficial, especially on the local level."

Despite these setbacks, Taylor remains positive about the future of approval voting. “We need to get back to speaking about ideas and policies,” she said. “We need to get away from divisive rhetoric. This helps us get there.”