Utilitarian Approval Voting

Approval voting (AV) is a system in which each voter gives one vote to each candidate that is approved and zero to others. Approval voting overcomes the spoiler effect that plurality voting creates. Utilitarian voting (UV) is a system in which each voter rates each candidate on some scale, and then the ratings are summed to determine the winner. Preference approval voting (PAV) combines approval voting with preference rankings to determine a winner. Utilitarian approval voting (UAV) involves placing a threshold in the individual utilitarian ratings and converting all those above threshold into approval votes. Where to place this threshold is left up to the voter in AV and PAV, but UAV combined with an optimal threshold mechanism (OTM) provides a method of placing the threshold in an optimal manner. PAV combines approval and preference information to determine the winner. UAV combines approval and utility information to determine the winner.