Does choosing committees from approval balloting fulfill the electorate’s will?

Abstract

An approval ballot is a voting ballot where voters indicate the candidates they approve among finitely many ones running for elections. We review below some recent studies of procedures that select groups of candidates, or committees, from approval ballots. Many examples can be found of collective decision-making situations where a committee, rather than a single candidate, has to be chosen: deciding about who among a class of students are the ones to be awarded, selecting a board of trustees, appointing new members of an academy, or new professors in a faculty department are all cases where a group of candidates has to be chosen by an electorate. Another example is provided by multiple referendum, where several issues are presented to the voters, who are asked issue-wise to answer by either yes or no.