Approval vs. ranked-choice voting
Approval voting asks which options you support. Ranked-choice voting asks for your order of preference. The difference matters most when you have a favorite and would also accept something else.
Here, ranked choice means instant-runoff voting (IRV), a method for choosing one winner. Other methods also use rankings, including Borda and STV.
What goes on the ballot
With approval, select every option you support. Each selection counts equally toward that option’s total. You cannot mark one approved option as your favorite.
With IRV, rank the options. Your vote counts for your highest-ranked option still in the running. If that option is eliminated, your vote moves to your next remaining choice.
How the winner is decided
Approval adds the votes for each option; the largest total wins. It does not require a majority. IRV counts first choices, then eliminates the option with the fewest votes if no option has more than half. It repeats the count using each ballot’s next remaining choice until an option has a majority.
These nine voters approve their top two options. That is a stated choice for this example, not something a ranking tells us.
- Pizza
- Thai
- Tacos
- Pizza
- Thai
- Tacos
- Thai
- Pizza
- Tacos
- Thai
- Thai
- Tacos
- Pizza
- Thai
- Tacos
Approval
Thai wins with 9 approvals. Everyone included it among the options they support.
Instant runoff
First choices: Pizza 4, Tacos 3, Thai 2.
Tacos wins with 5 votes. Thai is eliminated first. Its two voters ranked Tacos next, taking Tacos past Pizza’s four votes.
IRV’s elimination step can remove an option that many voters ranked second. Approval could reward that option if those voters approve it. Neither ballot guarantees that everyone’s broadly acceptable choice will win: the result depends on the preferences and support people actually express.
When your backup choice counts
In approval, a vote for a backup counts immediately, alongside your vote for your favorite. That helps the backup against options you dislike, but it can also help it finish ahead of your favorite.
In IRV, ranking a backup below your favorite does not take support away from your favorite. The backup receives your vote only if every option you ranked above it has been eliminated.
These ballots ask different questions. Knowing someone’s ranking does not tell you how many options they would approve. They might approve only their favorite, or several options further down their ranking.
Which fits your group?
Approval is useful when several answers may work, such as dates people can attend or proposals they support. IRV is useful when people want to distinguish a favorite from their alternatives. It asks more of the voter, and the elimination count takes more explanation.
Going Going’s approval rooms use checkboxes; its IRV rooms require a complete ranking. For the full counts and examples, see approval voting and instant-runoff voting. You can also create an approval vote or an instant-runoff vote directly.