Where has STAR Voting been tried?


STAR Voting has been used in elections big and small from our largest election when the Independent Party of Oregon used STAR Voting for their statewide primary, to internal elections such as when the Democratic Party of Oregon used STAR for it's presidential delegate elections, to organizational elections like when the LA chapter of DSA used STAR Voting for internal elections. 

STAR Voting was invented in 2014 but in the last decade it has been used around the country for impactful elections across the public and private sector. 

 

AAUW of Oregon: Using STAR Voting To Select Scholarship Recipients (2025)

AAUW of Oregon used BetterVoting.com’s STAR Voting process, combined with a ballot for each AAUW of Oregon representative to review.

 
DSA LA

 

Los Angeles DSA Internal Elections (2024)

DSA-LA used BetterVoting.com to run Proportional STAR Voting for their internal elections in 2024. This included many committees such as their steering committee, as well as branch elections which were configured to only be shown to voters from that branch. BetterVoting.com sent emails to 3000+ DSA members with over 300 participating (slightly higher than the turnout from prior elections). 

 

PCD Congressional and State Delegates Election (2024)

Polk County Democrats use STAR Voting to elect their congressional and state delegates, as stated in their bylaws. In December 2024 they used BetterVoting.com to run their elections.

 

 

Deschutes County Democrats - Endorsement Elections
2021-2022

Deschutes Democrats uses STAR Voting for its local Special District election endorsements. These elections are hosted online with Google Forms, Google Sheets, and VAN, along with the STAR Elections app to verify tabulation consistency with the spreadsheet and to generate election graphics.

 

 

FAQ for the Bloc STAR MultDems Reorg Election
April 30th, 2021

Article by Sara Wolk, published in the County Democrat Reader 

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon STAR Voting Primary: Spotlight on the Data - Secretary of State Election
September 28th, 2020

Almost 30% of voters showed no preference between the finalists in the Secretary of State race. What does that mean for the results?

 

 

Democratic Party of Oregon Presidential Delegate Elections: A walk-through of the voter experience
June 12th, 2020

Eligible voters were given the option to vote by mail or to use online voting in order to vote for delegates to the DNC National Convention to represent their preferred presidential candidates. The election used multi-winner STAR Voting with a modification to allow for gender-balancing of the winner list.

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon STAR Voting Primary: Spotlight on the Data

Presidential Preference Poll:
June 5th, 2020

Results breakdown, vote splitting avoided, expressive voting analysis, and more.

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon Primary Results
May 19th, 2020


This year the Independent Party of Oregon primary took place online, using STAR Voting. The election was officiated by STAR Elections, our very own in house team.

 

 

DNC to use STAR Voting to elect Oregon's Presidential Delegates to the Democratic National Convention!
May-June, 2020

This historic decision launched STAR Voting onto the national stage, empowering Oregon voters, protecting election integrity, and helping to ensure fair and representative results. The Democratic National Convention may determine our next president, so in the event of a close race or brokered convention Oregon's STAR elected delegates could make all the difference.

break

break

 

Multnomah County Democratic Party - Internal Elections
Adopted in early 2020

All internal elections for Multnomah County Democrats use STAR Voting for single-winner and multi-winner elections. This includes officer elections, 1st, 3rd, and 5th congressional district delegate and alternate election, and state central committee delegate and alternate elections. Following its adoption these delegations noted a marked increase in representation of individuals from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities. 

Case study write up coming soon.

 

ALTERNATIVE VOTING METHOD PILOT - Election Integrity Caucus
June 13th and 15th, 2019

Attendees at the Multnomah County Central Committee participated in a pilot project to compare 3 voting methods: “Choose-One” Plurality Voting (our current system), STAR Voting, and Ranked Choice Voting. All three ballots contained the same list of candidates; the candidates running in the 2020 presidential democratic primary.

 

University of Oregon - Department of Mathematics
2019

STAR Voting was used for a hiring committee for a new staff member. Due to privacy concerns the committee opted not to put out a case study on the election, but it was a success. STAR worked well and a difficult decision was made fairly and democratically.

 

Best of Eugene uses STAR Voting
September 24th, 2018

email blast by Sara Wolk

Voting on Round One ran from 9/13 to 9/26 and focused on Eats and Civics. Round Two ran from 9/27 to 10/10 and focused on Spending and Live Action. 

 

Washington Berniecrats use STAR for 2017 Primary Endorsements
Spring, 2017

In a statewide vote of the full membership, Washington Berniecrats, a branch of Our Revolution, used STAR Voting on Google Forms to officiate their Endorsement election. Case Study coming soon.

 

STAR Voting - First Use in a Public Poll!
May 9th, 2017

blog post by Mark Frohnmayer

Portland Forward graciously allowed us to invite ourselves to officiate the world's first public poll using STAR Voting* this last weekend at their annual SpringThing!!!. SpringThing's purpose is to "bring together a diverse and multi-generational group of citizens who are invested in leaving this city better than we found it, to empower citizen voices, and make change happen." What better place to give true democracy a test-drive?

Note: This page is under construction. Please check back for more case studies soon!