STAR Voting Oregon

STAR Voting Oregon - link to full slide presentation

• Nonpartisan

• Advocate for voting methods that are fair and accurate

• How Does Star Voting Work? - Quick Info Video

Current issue - vote-splitting with 3 or more candidates

• Doesn’t work - unfair

• “Spoiler” candidate ‘forces’ you to vote major party

  • Vote is ‘wasted’

  • 2 part domination - money

Methods that eliminate vote-splitting:

• “Bad” list = ranking is NOT always counted!

What do we want?

Rank choice is less accurate when lots of candidates are in a race

• Portland is known to have a large candidate field

• RCV is also known as “Instant Runoff”

• 3+ strong candidates like OR governor race would be likely to fail

  • Alaska was a good example of this - most Alaskans preferred either Republican over the Democrat

  • Close scenarios show faults of the system

Portland City Charter Ballot in November

• Mayor & auditor are proposed as one RCV method, 50% +1 to win

• City council proposed single transferable vote method, 25% +1 to win

  • Electeds are less accountable!

• Proportional RCV in a 3 member district

  • Ensures representation for diverse factions BUT…

  • Also makes electeds LESS ACCOUNTABLE

  • Candidate would need to be opposed by 2/3 to be voted out - encourages incumbecy

• No more early returns / tabulations

  • Could be illegal - Portland is technically in 3 counties that all have due dates

STAR 2024 Oregon Ballot Measure

• Signatures just submitted to gain approval to signature gather for ballot measure

  • Sign up for email list to be notified when they are ready to take volunteers to gather signatures!

• This ballot measure would cover all elections at every level within the state

  • Any municipality would be able to keep their current RCV since many are newly implemented

• How you can help:

  • Recommend STAR Voting for DPO elections: Resolution for STAR Voting

  • Support the STAR for Oregon Campaign: starvoting.us/donate

  • Sign up for updates or to get involved: starvoting.us/join

  • Come to an event: starvoting.us/events

Portland charter proposal Q&A:

• What if there are 30 candidates? It is typical to have 8-12 people running for a city council position, so estimate 10 x 3 positions per district = 30

  • This would limit the number of rankings you’d be able to do

  • STAR voting always has 6 bubbles no matter what

• Eliminating the May ‘primary’

  • Must ensure you are covering your bases with accurate voting method

  • Cost of elections will go down but have to make sure not at cost to vote accuracy

• Cost breakdowns of different voting methods?

  • RCV = new voting machines (obviously not an issue in OR)

  • STAR Cost info

• Uneducated voters trying to vote at the last minute - STAR is still SIMPLE!

  • RCV is not which can cause a voter to be overwhelmed

  • Voided ballots are not countable

STAR

• Single vs proportional versions of STAR

  • What matters more to community that is implementing?

    • Don’t want large, unrepresented factions

  • Easier to see differences in single method

Multnomah County Charter

• Ballot line item - concerns that it adds complexity

  • STAR or Approval Voting would be better for Multnomah County

    • Single winner RCV - same method as the proposed PDX city mayor & auditor 50% +1