Dr. Alan Zundel, PhD — former tenured professor, PoliSci, University of Nevada; Founder - Ranked Choice Voting Oregon; Leader, RCV for Benton County, OR 2016; Co-founder, Equal Vote Coalition
I've actively worked for better forms of voting since 2004, having left academia convinced that our democracy was in trouble due in large part to our outdated electoral system. I promoted Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) until I learned of STAR Voting in 2016. After months of careful scrutiny, I determined STAR Voting is not only an improvement on RCV, but a superior voting method overall that should make an enormous difference in bringing our democracy into the 21st century.
Chris Edwards President, Oregon Forest Industries Council; former State Senator, Oregon Dist. 7
If you want action on the issues that you and most Oregonians care about most, I encourage you to vote for an upgrade to the STAR Voting system.
Lisa Warnes — candidate for Eugene City Council, Ward 2
I wholeheartedly embrace STAR Voting; it levels the playing field and gives us better choices. It eliminates vote splitting so each candidate has the same chance, plus it is accurate. It also will eliminate primaries, plus it does not require re-tooling our voting system so it saves money. I just wish we had it years ago all over the United States. Democracy is going to continue to erode until we have a more fair voting system. This is the step through the door of fixing our democracy.
Joe Berney — former Lane County Commissioner
I support any effort to decrease power politics and increase the voice of the people, which [STAR Voting] is designed to do.
Clay Shentrup — co-founder and former Chair of the Center for Election Science
STAR Voting is the solution to our increasingly polarized and fractured electorate. When voters are free to independently evaluate all the candidates they wish to, they're able to think outside the box and beyond the traditional labels. Our current system of choosing only a single candidate provides the least information possible—and often that one morsel of information is inaccurate because we're afraid to 'waste our vote' on a candidate who hasn't proven their 'electability' with big fundraising success or establishment accolades. STAR Voting is a simple and intuitive way for voters to express their political views. A zero to five score empowers you to say who is excellent, mediocre, or simply unfit for office. The automatic runoff ensures true majority support and incentivizes voters to state their honest opinion. As an Oregonian, I'm excited about the prospect of Oregon voters introducing STAR voting to the world.
Sara Wolk; Executive Director - Equal Vote Coalition; Chief Petitioner - STAR Voting for Eugene
Until voters can vote their conscience, it's not a democracy!
Ted M. Coopman — candidate for Eugene City Council, Ward 1; Lecturer Emeritus, San Jose State University
I support STAR Voting because elections should be for the individual we want most, not to stop the person we want least. Defending voting degrades the democratic process and breeds cynicism and apathy. The most extreme wings of our two big parties decide who everyone gets to choose from and no third-party or independent candidate has a chance. We can do better. Vote for voting your conscience, not your fear. Vote for STAR Voting.
Benjamin Singer — CEO, Respect Voters
STAR Voting is a fantastic idea to better represent voters.
Jacob Trewe — former Chair, Eugene-Springfield Democratic Socialists of America
STAR Voting is a better way to reflect the electoral will of our community. As democratic socialists, we believe that we must build a society and economy that meets all human needs, not to just make profits for a few. STAR Voting allows for Eugenians to vote their conscience without feeling like their votes are wasted. A voting system that increases participation is worthwhile and our chapter supports this measure.
Julia DeGraw — Coalition Director, Oregon League of Conservation Voters; former candidate, Portland City Commission
I support STAR Voting because it creates a more level playing field for candidates and will respect the will of the voters.
Mark Frohnmayer — Founder, Arcimoto; Founder, Equal Vote Coalition; co-inventor of STAR Voting
It appears clear to almost everybody right now that our political process is broken. STAR Voting was created to address a fundamental root of the brokenness, namely an inequality of the voting franchise itself. We believe Eugene can lead the way for the nation and the world with a truly representative voting method.
Dr. Jameson Quinn — PhD, Statistics (Harvard, 2019); former Vice Chair of the Center for Election Science; Board Director, Equal Vote Coalition
Of the dozens of voting methods I know about, STAR Voting is one of the very best for single-winner political elections. It is undeniably a top-shelf election method, and arguably the best out of all the ones I tested.
Emily Vltavín — BS, Mathematics and Computer Science, Truman State University
As a mathematician, I am deeply impressed by STAR Voting's ability to incentivize honest voting. It will be a powerful force in dissolving the stranglehold that the current 2-party system has on our political landscape, and I for one am ecstatic about that more representative future.
Alan Savage President, California Approves
Approval Voting and STAR Voting make your vote more powerful. Candidates have to fight for everyone’s vote, not just a fanatical minority. That means representatives that better reflect your values and respond to you.
Felix Sargent — former Chair, Center for Election Science
[STAR Voting is] dramatically better than our current Choose One Voting method that leads to vote splitting, and is simpler and more effective than Ranked Choice Voting. STAR voting has been studied by social choice theorists and carries the best of Score and Approval Voting, while using an automatic runoff to encourage voters to highlight their true favorite vs good enough. STAR Voting collects a high resolution snapshot of voters' opinions about all candidates on the ballot and uses that data to fairly elect a consensus candidate. It’s resilient against vote splitting and aligns voters expectations with their incentives.
Margie Trifari — former State Leader, RepresentUs Oregon
Too often, elections end with a winner by a plurality of votes, leaving more than half the people with a choice that does not please them. STAR Voting makes sure that the winner is someone that meets the approval of the majority of voters from all parties.
Hayden “Sass” Sasswood — former candidate for US House, TX-35; Board Director, Equal Vote Coalition
Most single-winner voting methods are really great and I'd be happy to use many of them, even for public elections, but if I was forced to pick just one, it might have to be STAR Voting. There are a ton of important considerations to balance and I think STAR just barely hits the mark on all of them, which is something I probably can't comfortably say about any other method.
Dr. Keith Edmonds — PhD, High Energy Physics; former Physicist at CERN; Principal Data Scientist at QuantumBlack; Board Director, Equal Vote Coalition
STAR Voting is my first choice for any single-winner race. No other voting method balances all the trade-offs of desirable features as well as STAR Voting.
James Carroll — National Chair, Benjamin Franklin Party
When America was founded in the 1700s, our current voting method (plurality voting) was state-of-the-art. Humans have learned a lot about elections since the 1700s, however, and now much better voting methods exist to produce outcomes more closely aligned with voter sentiment. STAR Voting is one of those methods, and is among the best. At the Benjamin Franklin Party, we believe it is time to upgrade America’s voting methods to the 21st century, and support STAR voting as a good way to make progress toward that goal.
Nate Allen — Founder and Executive Director of Utah Approves; Board Director, Equal Vote Coalition
In terms of accuracy of representation, STAR Voting is the pinnacle of single-winner voting methods, combining expressivity and soundness to elect the truly most representative candidates.
Leon Noble — former candidate for governor, Oregon
Having experienced the failures of our voting system firsthand, STAR Voting is the first step to correcting the problems in our election system and returning ethics and honesty to politics. No other action, not even campaign finance reform, will do what STAR Voting will accomplish. This one action returns the power of govt. back to the people, through an equal vote.