The Center for Election Science

The Center for Election Science (CES) is an American 501(c)(3) electoral reform advocacy organization.[5][6][7][8] They advocate for cardinal voting methods such as approval voting[9] and score voting.[10] They consider themselves to be rooted in effective altruism.[11][12]

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.
Interim Executive Director
Justine Metz[2]
Chair
Felix Sargent
Vice Chair
Michael Ruvinsky
Treasurer
Kerry Keys
Secretary
Jeff Justice
Directors
Jon Roberts
John Hegeman
LaShana Lewis
Jennifer Doleac
Justine Metz
Kristine Reeves[3]
Revenue
$2.1 million (2022)[4]
Websiteelectionscience.org

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

Organizational opinions

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

CES was founded in 2011 by Clay Shentrup, Aaron Hamlin, and Dr. 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:

  • 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 Dr. Kennith 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 6th, 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 3rd, 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]

Current efforts

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]

See also

References
  1. "2011 Annual Report" (pdf). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  2. Piel, Micheal (2023-04-05). "CES Welcomes Interim Executive Director". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  3. "Meet the Team". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  4. "2022 Annual Report" (pdf). The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  5. "The Center for Election Science". Idealist.org. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  6. Griffiths, Shawn (March 15, 2019). "10 Nonpartisan Organizations to Watch in 2020". Independent Voter News. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  7. Shackford, Scott (2018-10-26). "Fargo Considers Whether to Turn Local Elections into a Voting System of Likes (and Dislikes)". Reason. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  8. Cutler, Eliot R. (March 9, 2019). "Blame Democrats, not me, for Paul LePage victories". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  9. "Approval Voting". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  10. "Score Voting". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  11. Greaves, Hilary; Pummer, Theron (2019-09-12). Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780192578303.
  12. Illing, Sean (2018-12-14). "How to do good better". Vox. Retrieved 2019-11-05. 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 (2018-11-15). "This city just approved a new election system never tried before in America". Vox. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  14. "St. Louis, Missouri, Proposition D, Approval Voting Initiative (November 2020)". Ballotpedia. 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  15. "It's not just ranked-choice. Approval voting is also in the offing". The Fulcrum. 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  16. Griffiths, Shawn (November 1, 2019). "NEW POLL: 72% of St. Louis Voters Support Approval Voting Initiative". Independent Voter News. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  17. Hamlin, Aaron (2020-05-21). "An Assessment of Six Single-Winner Voting Methods". Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  18. "Meet the reformer: Aaron Hamlin, the man behind approval voting". The Fulcrum. 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  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 2019-11-05.
  20. "Approval Voting versus IRV". The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  21. "2012 Annual Report" (pdf). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  22. "The Center for Election Science — General Support". Good Ventures. Archived from the original on 2022-12-09. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  23. "2018 Annual Report" (PDF). Election Science. The Center for Election Science. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  24. Griffiths, Shawn (2022-08-22) [2018-08-28]. "Are We Looking at the First City to Make History with Approval Voting?". IVN Network. Independent Voter News. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  25. "What is Approval Voting?". Reform Fargo. Reform Fargo. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  26. "Center for Election Science Announces $1.8 Million for Approval Voting". Philanthropy News Digest (PND). March 9, 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-05.
  27. Fields, Jessie; Opdycke, John (2019-11-05). "Push for open primaries in St. Louis is good for the country". The Fulcrum. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  28. Lippmann, Rachel; Clark-Callender, Becca (2020-11-03). "St. Louis Votes To Remake Local Elections, Residency Requirement Remains". STLPR. NPR. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  29. Tegethoff, Eric (2021-02-25). "Approval Voting Campaign Gets Boost in WA". Public News Service. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  30. Mitchell, Jackie (2022-09-06). "Seattle voters to decide on whether to adopt approval voting or ranked-choice voting for city primary elections". Ballotpedia News. Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  31. "Seattle voters poised to pass ranked choice voting initiative as group behind effort claims victory". KIRO7. 2022-11-16. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  32. "Politicians spend too much time fighting each other". Missouri Agrees. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
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