Utilitarian Voting

Utilitarian Voting is a single winner election method design to satisfy Jeremy Bentham's Principle of Utility. This principle can be stated as ""Act always to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number." [Source: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james-mill/]. That was how Bentham had stated it. It is also called Happiness Voting.

The Procedure

Each voter is given a list of all candidates in the election. The voter is asked to list the candidates that they are happy with to win the election. A given voter can only list a given candidate once. Whichever candidate occurs on the most lists wins.

Discussion

This voting system is an approval method. It is said to satisfy Bentham's principle by electing the candidate that makes the greatest number of voters happy. A criticism of this voting system is that it only tries to make the greatest number of voters happy. It does not take into account the extent of happiness.