Ratings ballot

A ratings ballot is a ballot on which candidates are rated on a cardinal scale. For example candidates in an election could be rated from 0 to 99 or from -5 to 5 or from 1 to 10. Generally you will gave the candidate you like least the lowest score (0,-5 or 1) and the candidate you like the most the highest score (99,5 or 10).

An Approval Voting ballot can be considered as a ratings ballot with two possible ratings 1 (approve) and 0 (disapprove). Under conditions of strategy (rational voters wishing to obtain the best outcome for themselves with perfect knowledge of how all other voters will vote) a rating ballot with more than 2 rating points should become identical to an Approval ballot with all candidates being given either the highest or lowest rating.