Where has STAR Voting been used?

Organizations across the public, nonprofit, private, and political sectors have used STAR Voting for elections, endorsements, hiring, scholarships, governance, polling, and collaborative decision-making. Explore how they used the five-star ballot and what they learned.

From the first election of a public official in Astoria, Oregon, to the Independent Party of Oregon statewide primary, to the Democratic Party of Oregon's presidential delegate elections, to organizational elections like those run by groups like the Musicians Union Local 99, STAR Voting elects strong winners who best represent their communities, no matter how many candidates are in the race. 

STAR Voting was invented in 2014. In the last decade plus, it has been used around the country for impactful elections across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, building momentum for public adoption. 

If you're looking to run a STAR Voting election, please visit BetterVoting.com. "Whether it's informal polls or highly secure elections, electronic or paper, single-seat or multi-seat, we've got you covered!" - The BetterVoting Team

Featured Case Studies

 

Astoria City Council uses STAR Voting to elect new councilor

The City Council of Astoria, Oregon used STAR Voting to fill a vacancy on the city council. During a live public meeting, the mayor and councilors cast their votes, and the winner was sworn in immediately. This was the first use of STAR Voting to elect a municipal public official.

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon Primary Results

The Independent Party of Oregon used STAR Voting for its statewide primary election and presidential preference poll, with the election hosted by the STAR Elections team. The election marked the first binding political use of STAR Voting and generated transparent ballot data that provided new insights into voter preferences, voter behavior with a 5 star ballot, and election outcomes.

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon STAR Voting Primary: Spotlight on the Presidential Preference Poll

The Independent Party of Oregon used STAR Voting for its presidential preference poll, with the election hosted by the STAR Elections team. The election demonstrated how the five-star ballot can avoid strategic vote-splitting, allowing voters to honestly support multiple candidates while ensuring the majority's preferred finalist prevailed.

 

 

Independent Party of Oregon STAR Voting Primary:
Spotlight on the Secretary of State Election

The Independent Party of Oregon used STAR Voting for its Secretary of State primary, with the election hosted by the STAR Elections team. Featuring six viable candidates from across the political spectrum, the election demonstrated how the five-star ballot can capture nuanced voter preferences, avoid strategic vote-splitting, and identify broadly supported finalists in a competitive multi-candidate race.

 

 

DNC to use STAR Voting to elect Oregon's Presidential Delegates to the Democratic National Convention!

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.

 

Democratic Party of Oregon Presidential Delegate Elections: A walk-through of the voter experience

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.

 

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Multnomah County Democratic Party - Internal Elections

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

The Democratic Party of Oregon conducted a formal pilot program to evaluate leading alternative voting methods for adoption by the party. Voters in Portland, Oregon weighed in on a crowded primary field using the five-star ballot while comparing STAR Voting alongside Ranked Choice Voting and traditional Choose-One Plurality Voting. The pilot gave members firsthand experience with each system before considering permanent adoption.

 

Python Core Developers use Bloc STAR Voting for Steering Council

Python, one of the world's leading programming languages, uses Bloc STAR Voting on BetterVoting.com to elect its Steering Council. The council oversees Python's governance, manages the Python Enhancement Proposal (PEP) process, maintains the quality and consistency of the language, and serves as the project's final decision-making body when community consensus isn't enough.

 

Portland Musicians Union uses STAR Voting for Executive Board election

The Local 99 Musicians Union used STAR voting with paper ballots to elect three new members to their executive board. Votes were counted using a manual tallying process, followed by an audit to ensure accuracy. This election represented the union's second annual election with STAR Voting. 

 

AAUW of Oregon uses STAR Voting to select scholarship recipients

AAUW of Oregon used STAR Voting on BetterVoting.com to select recipients for its NCCWSL scholarships. The process allowed reviewers to evaluate anonymized applications independently, identify the strongest candidates, and avoid the time and complexity of scheduling a lengthy consensus meeting.

 
DSA LA

 

Los Angeles DSA Internal Elections

DSA-LA used BetterVoting.com to run Proportional STAR Voting for their internal elections. 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

Polk County Democrats use STAR Voting to elect their congressional and state delegates, as stated in their bylaws. They use the BetterVoting.com platform to run their elections.

 

 

Deschutes County Democrats - Endorsement Elections

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

The Multnomah County Democrats adopted STAR Voting for their internal elections, using the five-star ballot to elect officers and delegates. The transition streamlined large, competitive elections while supporting broad participation and representative outcomes in one of Oregon's largest local political organizations.

 

 

University of Oregon - Department of Mathematics

STAR Voting was used for a hiring committee for a new staff member. Users reported that STAR worked well, and a difficult decision was made fairly and democratically.

 

Bike Farm Portland uses STAR Voting to select a new mural

Bike Farm used STAR voting on bettervoting.com to select a new mural for their building. Voters were presented with three different mural design choices, with a total of 70 votes cast.

 

 

Best of Eugene uses STAR Voting

Eugene Weekly used STAR Voting to power its online "Best of Eugene" readers' choice contest, allowing the public to vote across dozens of local businesses, organizations, and community favorites. The five-star ballot made it easy for voters to support multiple favorites while still expressing nuanced preferences in crowded contests.

 

Washington Berniecrats used STAR for Primary Endorsements
Spring

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. 

 

STAR Voting - First Use in a Public Poll!

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? 

Last updated 7/10/26