Voting Reform with Annie Kallen and Lynn McConnell Women of the Northwest

Why voter reform?
The Problem
STAR stands for Score Then Automatic Runoff

Give your favorite 5 stars, give your least favorite zero and score the others as you like.

You can score your conscience.

You don't have to worry about voting for the lessor of two evils or wasting your vote.

Scores are created by adding all the scores until all the ballots are counted.
The two highest scoring candidates are finalists.
The remaining candidates are out of the running.

Next, scores are tabulated in the automatic runoff.
All ballots are considered again, looking at the scores of the finalists to consider the winner.

STAR is non-partisan.

We should be able to vote our conscience, our votes should never be wasted, and our elections should accurately reflect the will of the people.

The initiative would establish STAR voting, where voters rate the candidates for a given office and the top two finishers advance to an automatic runoff.

Oct 6, 2023 — Eugene residents will likely will decide in May whether to implement the STAR (Score Then Automatic Runoff) voting method. 

SECTION 1. Legislative Findings.
The People of the State of Oregon find that:
(1) Upgrading our electoral system to a modern, user-friendly, and more accurate voting method would significantly improve Oregon's political landscape by ensuring that every voter can vote their conscience, that our votes are able to make a difference, and that our system elects winners who better represent the will of the people.

(2) Modern electoral science has consistently shown that STAR Voting is the best voting method available to empower voters, to level the playing field, to remove barriers to entry for candidates, and to ensure our elections are fair and representative.

(3) The current voting method used in most Oregon elections, in which a voter can vote for only one candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins, is fundamentally flawed:

(a) Voting for one's honest favorite can and often does backfire, if a voter's favorite isn't strong enough to win, and voters must strategically vote for a "lesser-of-two-evils" candidate to avoid wasting their votes.

(b) This is due to a problem known as vote-splitting, where like-minded voters can end up effectively divided and conquered. Vote-splitting is common in elections with more than two candidates, even if the third candidate has no chance of winning. When vote-splitting results in the election of a candidate opposed by the majority of voters, it is known as the "Spoiler Effect."

(c) Candidates who may have brought valuable ideas to the table are often pressured not to run because of vote-splitting concerns. Vote-splitting also makes elections subject to manipulation, and political operatives can fund non-viable candidates they actually oppose in order to split the vote and game the election.

(d) The current system increases polarization and leads to two-party domination because it only works accurately with two candidates in the race. When there are more candidates, voters have to align with one of the two perceived front runners to avoid wasting their votes.

(e) Voting for an under funded candidate who may not be viable runs the risk of "wasting" your vote, so vote-splitting magnifies the already outsized influence of money in politics.






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