[PvK]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
"That is, everyone votes for all of the candidates whom they approve enough to want in office, and the one with the most approvals wins"

How is this any different than the current? Unless you restrict people from voting twice for the same person..

Tbontob and SJ seem to have understood what I meant.

The difference from the current system is that in the current system, a voter can only vote for one candidate. In my suggestion, voters can vote for some, none, or all candidates.

Example:
Three candidates for president: Democrat, Republican, and Independent.
40% of the people actually like the Democrat.
40% of the people actually like the Republican.
60% of the people actually like the Independent.

Note that adds to 140%, because some voters actually like more than one of the candidates.

However, half of all voters are sure either a Democrat or a Republican will win.

In the current system, that means half (probably more in reality) of the people who like the independent decide to vote for either the Republican or the Democrat, because they like one better than the other, and think voting for the Independent will have no effect.

Results:
~45% Democrat
~45% Republican
10% Independent

Democrat and Republican look like they are really popular, and Independent voters could have determined the vote for one or the other, if only they hadn't "wasted" their vote.

In my system, the results would be:
Democrat: 40% approval
Republican: 40% approval
Independent: 60% approval

The truth comes out, and the most-approved candidate actually wins.

PvK