Frederick City Council Committee Meeting on Elections Reform and Approval Voting - February 23, 2026
Frederick City Council Committee Meeting on Elections Reform and Approval Voting - February 23, 2026
This meeting, held on February 23, 2026, at 9:00 AM, focused on a presentation by the Center for Election Science (CES) regarding approval voting as an alternative voting method. Council members heard from Mary Kramer Wagner and Alison Sardinas, who detailed the mechanics, benefits, and real-world applications of approval voting. No public comments were offered, and the meeting concluded with a brief update on committee work plans.
Presentation on Approval Voting
- Presenters: Mary Kramer Wagner (Pinnacle Strategies, representing CES) and Alison Sardinas (Director of Public Affairs, CES).
- Background: Wagner shared her 21 years of experience in elections and a task force bill (bipartisan, introduced in state House and Senate) to study approval voting and ranked choice voting (RCV). A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, February 26, 2026, at 1:00 PM.
- Definition: Approval voting allows voters to select all candidates they approve of (like a Doodle poll). It aggregates consensus rather than seeking a 50% threshold.
- Case study – St. Louis, MO: Proposition D passed with 68% support, implementing approval voting. In the first election, two women (a black woman and a white woman) rose to the top with over 50% approval each, the first such outcome in city history. The previous plurality system had allowed a candidate to win with 32% due to vote splitting. Implementation cost only $1,000 for voter education.
- Case study – Fargo, ND: Used approval voting the longest among modern U.S. municipalities. Council races saw reduced vote splitting and more candidates winning with higher approval percentages.
- Cost & Complexity: No additional ballot paper costs; no software changes required (overvote function turned off). Compliant with risk-limiting audits and hand counts.
- Voter Behavior: Initially about 30% of voters choose multiple candidates; this increases as voters become more familiar. No increased burden on election administrators.
- Turnout: Voting method not a primary driver of turnout; strong parties and GOTV efforts matter more. Approval voting moderately increases turnout (1-2%).
- Discrimination Concerns: Sardinas stated a forthcoming peer-reviewed study found approval voting is the easiest method for minority populations and not discriminatory.
- Funding: CES is funded primarily by individual donors from mathematics and engineering fields; all donor information is transparently disclosed.
Q&A Highlights
- Councilmember Atkins: Asked whether approval voting eliminates primaries. Sardinas clarified it is compatible with any primary structure; CES prefers a single open primary (as in St. Louis) to save costs.
- Councilmember Taylor: Inquired about winning thresholds and why approval voting is not more widespread. Sardinas noted it is a newer method in public use, with only two municipalities currently using it, but it has long academic history.
- Councilmember (unidentified): Raised concerns about name recognition bias. Sardinas cited studies showing approval voting helps overcome incumbency bias and allows first-time candidates to win.
- Councilmember (senator volunteer): Asked about low-turnout elections and bullet voting. Sardinas explained outcomes still change under approval voting (e.g., winners reach 50% approval even in low turnout). About 33% bullet vote initially, but that declines over time.
- Councilmember (unidentified): Asked about open primaries. Sardinas confirmed St. Louis used an open, nonpartisan primary with approval voting and a top-two plurality runoff.
- Councilmember (unidentified): Asked if approval voting has been called discriminatory. Sardinas acknowledged it has been, but their research found the opposite; results will be published soon.
- Councilmember (unidentified): Asked about funding sources. Sardinas listed individual donors from technical fields; CES is small and transparent.
- Councilmember (unidentified): Asked about mail-in ballots and elderly voters. Sardinas noted that older voters tend to be more politically informed and may vote for more candidates; no ballot errors occur because any vote is counted.
Key Outcomes
- No votes or formal decisions were taken.
- The presentation was received by the committee as part of its ongoing elections reform study.
- A rescheduled presentation on related topics by Walter Olson will be arranged.
- CES will share additional studies and data with council members.
- The work plan status was briefly updated; next week’s meeting will focus on budget monitoring.
Meeting Transcript
Council members, we are going to welcome a presentation, and leading the conversation is going to be our own council member. But before I turn it over to him, uh one of the benefits of having this new structure is, of course, that we get to broaden our reach and broaden our expertise. And I was so excited when Councilmember Bram was assigned to our committee because I know that elections reform is something that he's very passionate about, and he uh correctly and rightly so identified this presentation very early on. Um more importantly than that, though, it is also a very important day uh for our council, and that is his birthday. So happy birthday, council member. And with that, please uh take it away. You're a rock star. All right. So what stays in council what goes on in council stays in council, right? Thank you very much. Uh so just as as a way of background and as uh Chair Nash noted, um, we're taking a look at a range of things pertaining to elections. We've had a presentation already about ranked choice voting, and it was suggested then that we have a presentation on approval voting. And so thank you, Ms. Wagner and Miss Sardinas for coming and sharing this with us. Um by way of background, a third speaker, Walter Olson, who was part of the charter group as well as an expert on elections because of the weather, will not be able to join us today, and so I will reschedule his his presentation and comments later on. So more to come on that. Uh so Ms. Wagner, I understood you were going to lead for a few minutes and then turn over to Ms. Sardinas, is that correct? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you, and good afternoon, council members. My name is Mary Kramer Wagner. I'm with uh Pinnacle Strategies representing the Center for Election Science. And I want to thank you for the opportunity to present to you the information on approval voting. Just want to give a little bit of background about myself. I spent 21 years in the wonderful world of elections, and that just never gets out of your bloodstream, I tell you what. But um I also was a legislative liaison to the General Assembly during that time, and I just need to give a shout out to uh the former election director of Frederick, Stuart Harvey, who was my partner in crime during that whole time I was with elections because again, I'm state board. I always used to say there wasn't enough love nor money for me to work at a local board because they do the yeoman's work, they do the heavy lifting, and I would come up with some really great ideas, and Stuart would look at me and say, No, go back to the drawing board. So I always really welcomed his collaboration with me. And a lot of questions, as you all can imagine. What is the difference between ranked choice and approval voting? And we go around and around, and the legislators were confused, and they didn't want to make that decision. So after speaking to quite a few of the legislators, I said, how about a task force? Uh and the task force would study the implementation of approval voting and ranked choice voting. Let's get the best in the brightest in the room to hash this out, not showing favoritism from you know, for one or the other. It would be give us your best. And I present it to you all with the bill, and I'll be more than happy. It's a bipartisan uh process between the House and the Senate. Uh and um I can certainly get that back out to you. Uh the hearing in both chambers is Wednesday at one o'clock. So we will be dividing and conquering and testifying and whatnot. There will be, I'm sure, amendments offered, which we welcome. This is just a starting point to do that. And so I'll keep you all posted about how we move forward with this these bills. And with that, I would love to turn it over to Alison, who is the true person on approval voting. Thank you so much, Mary. Uh before I introduce myself, I'm so sorry, everyone.
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