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The Center for Election Science
FoundersClay Shentrup
Aaron Hamlin
Dr. Warren D. Smith[1]
Type501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
PurposePromoting electoral reform in the United States
HeadquartersRemote/Distributed, U.S.
Chief Executive Officer
Nina Taylor[2]
Chair
Michael Ruvinsky
Vice Chair
John Hegeman
Treasurer
LaShana Lewis,
Secretary
Justine Metz
Directors
Tamika Anderson
Sara Ponzio
[3]
Revenue$2.1 million (2022)[4]
Websiteelectionscience.org

The Center for Election Science is an American 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on voter education and promoting election science.[5][6][7][8] The organization promotes cardinal voting methods such as approval[9] and score voting.[10] They have their early roots in effective altruism.[11][12]

The Center for Election Science helped pass approval voting in the city of Fargo, North Dakota, during the 2018 elections alongside Reform Fargo.[13] In St. Louis, Missouri, the organization passed an approval voting law in 2020 with the help of St. Louis Approves.[14][15][16]

Organizational opinions

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The Center argues that approval voting is superior to other proposed electoral reforms for multiple reasons, including accuracy, simplicity, and tractability.[17] 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.[18][19][20]

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.[17]

History

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The Center for Election Science was founded in 2011 by Clay Shentrup, Aaron Hamlin, and Warren D. Smith.[1] It achieved status as a 501(c)3 in 2012 and began soliciting donations. The board of directors for that year consisted of:

  • Aaron Hamlin - President
  • Jan Kok - Vice President
  • Dr. Andrew Jennings - Treasurer
  • Clay Shentrup - Secretary
  • Eric Sanders - Parliamentarian

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.[21]

In December 2017 they received a grant from Open Philanthropy totaling $598,600.[22] 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.[23]

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.[24][25]

In February 2019, the organization received a second grant from Open Philanthropy, totaling $1.8 million.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29]

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.[30] 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.[31]

In January 2024, the center brought on Nina Taylor as chief executive officer.[32]

Current efforts

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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.[33]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "2011 Annual Report" (PDF). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  2. ^ Raleigh, Chris (January 16, 2024). "Nina Taylor to Lead The Center for Election Science as New CEO". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  3. ^ "Meet the Team". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  4. ^ "2022 Annual Report" (PDF). The Center for Election Science. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  5. ^ "The Center for Election Science". Idealist.org. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  6. ^ Griffiths, Shawn (March 15, 2019). "10 Nonpartisan Organizations to Watch in 2020". Independent Voter News. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  7. ^ Shackford, Scott (October 26, 2018). "Fargo Considers Whether to Turn Local Elections into a Voting System of Likes (and Dislikes)". Reason. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  8. ^ Cutler, Eliot R. (March 9, 2019). "Blame Democrats, not me, for Paul LePage victories". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  9. ^ "Approval Voting". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  10. ^ "Score Voting". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  11. ^ Greaves, Hilary; Pummer, Theron (September 12, 2019). Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780192578303.
  12. ^ Illing, Sean (December 14, 2018). "How to do good better". Vox. Retrieved November 5, 2019. 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.
  13. ^ Piper, Kelsey (November 15, 2018). "This city just approved a new election system never tried before in America". Vox. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  14. ^ "St. Louis, Missouri, Proposition D, Approval Voting Initiative (November 2020)". Ballotpedia. November 4, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  15. ^ "It's not just ranked-choice. Approval voting is also in the offing". The Fulcrum. June 17, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  16. ^ Griffiths, Shawn (November 1, 2019). "NEW POLL: 72% of St. Louis Voters Support Approval Voting Initiative". Independent Voter News. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  17. ^ a b Hamlin, Aaron (May 21, 2020). "An Assessment of Six Single-Winner Voting Methods". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  18. ^ "Meet the reformer: Aaron Hamlin, the man behind approval voting". The Fulcrum. September 13, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  19. ^ Wiblin, Robert; Harris, Keiran (May 31, 2018). "Politics is way worse because we use an atrocious 18th century voting system. This guy has a viable plan to fix it". 80,000 Hours. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  20. ^ "Approval Voting versus IRV". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  21. ^ "2012 Annual Report" (PDF). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  22. ^ "The Center for Election Science — General Support". Good Ventures. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  23. ^ "2018 Annual Report" (PDF). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  24. ^ Griffiths, Shawn (August 22, 2022) [2018-08-28]. "Are We Looking at the First City to Make History with Approval Voting?". IVN Network. Independent Voter News. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  25. ^ "What is Approval Voting?". Reform Fargo. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
  26. ^ "Center for Election Science Announces $1.8 Million for Approval Voting". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). March 9, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  27. ^ Fields, Jessie; Opdycke, John (November 5, 2019). "Push for open primaries in St. Louis is good for the country". The Fulcrum. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
  28. ^ Lippmann, Rachel; Clark-Callender, Becca (November 3, 2020). "St. Louis Votes To Remake Local Elections, Residency Requirement Remains". STLPR. NPR. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  29. ^ Tegethoff, Eric (February 25, 2021). "Approval Voting Campaign Gets Boost in WA". Public News Service. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  30. ^ Mitchell, Jackie (September 6, 2022). "Seattle voters to decide on whether to adopt approval voting or ranked-choice voting for city primary elections". Ballotpedia News. Ballotpedia. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  31. ^ "Seattle voters poised to pass ranked choice voting initiative as group behind effort claims victory". KIRO7. November 16, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  32. ^ Raleigh, Chris (January 16, 2024). "Nina Taylor to Lead The Center for Election Science as New CEO". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  33. ^ "Politicians spend too much time fighting each other". Missouri Agrees. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
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