Without being rude, I strongly disagree.

My users table looks something like:

User_ID    IsSelected   Org   Last_Name
Dale               -1             1        XXX
Ted                -1             2        YYY
Steve             -1             3         ZZZ
George            0             4        AAA

My Gap_Votes table looks something like:

UserID      GapID      Gap_Likelihood   Gap_Impact
Dale             29                      5                    5
Dale             30                      6                    6
Ted              29                    NULL          NULL
Ted              30                       7                   6

With this data, the dataset I would expect to get back is:

User_ID    Org    Gap_Likelihood  Gap_Impact
Dale            1              5                      5
Ted             2              NULL             NULL
Steve          3              NULL             NULL

You are mistaken for several reasons.

1. As you can see, my Users table does not contain a GapID, so I cannot
possibly remove the sub-query without adding WHERE clause that restricts the
return recordset to GapID = 29.  But as soon as I add that WHERE clause, it
would restrict the recordset to only those records where people in the Users
table have a matching record in the Gap_Votes table.

2.  Likewise, I cannot do as you suggest because to ensure that I get the
above recordset I cannot put a WHERE clause at the end of the query to
restrict it to users where IsSelected = True, for exactly the same reason.

If you think you see a way to get the recordset I've indicated, without the
sub-query and without the LEFT JOIN, please provide it.

Dale