Dr. Alan Zundel; PhD, Political Science (University of Michigan, 1994); Tenured Political Science Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; former Oregon Secretary of State candidate; Chair, 2017 Oregon Redistricting Reform Task Force; leader of the successful Ranked Choice Voting campaign in Benton County, OR, 2016
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forms of voting since 2004, having left academia convinced that our democracy was in trouble due in large part to our outdated electoral system.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.
Ammon Gruwell; Founder and Executive Director of the Utah Center for Electoral Reform
STAR Voting is truly the Ferrari of voting methods. STAR Voting is the culmination of decades of excellent electoral research and modeling. It brings together the best elements of other popular methods and leads the pack in study after study. I think STAR Voting is ready for its breakout moment, and it can't come soon enough.
Dr. Rosa Colquitt; PhD, Research Administration (North Carolina State University); President, Greater Portland National Organization for Women; and State Party Chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon
I believe [STAR Voting] will have a positive effect in leveling the playing field for many BIPOC people who are essentially left out and locked out. I believe that STAR Voting allows fair and representative elections, eliminates spoilers, and combats the negative impacts of money in politics.
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.
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.
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.
Chris Edwards; President, Oregon Forest Industries Council; former State Senator, Oregon District 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.
Sass; former candidate for US House, TX-35
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. Jameson Quinn; PhD, Statistics (Harvard, 2019) and former Vice Chair of the Center for Election Science
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.
Nate Allen; Founder and Executive Director of Utah Approves
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.
Dr. Keith Edmonds; PhD, High Energy Physics (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 2011); former Physicist at CERN; and Principal Data Scientist at QuantumBlack
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.
Felix Sargent; Former Chair of The 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.
Paige Kreisman; former candidate for State House, Oregon District 42
Everyday working class Oregonians deserve a democracy that works for — and is accessible for — all of us. That’s why I am proud to endorse the adoption of STAR Voting in Oregon at all levels of government. STAR Voting will give Oregonians more choices, more freedom, and more transparency in our elections. We have to dare to build the world that we want to live in, and I want to live in a world with fair, inclusive, and equitable elections. I want to live in a world with STAR Voting. Let’s build that world together!
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.
Margie Trifari; State Volunteer 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.
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.
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.
Benjamin Singer; CEO, Respect Voters
STAR Voting is a fantastic idea to better represent voters.
Emily Dempsey; 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.
Jacob Trewe; 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.
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.
Sara Wolk; Executive Director of the Equal Vote Coalition; Chief Petitioner of STAR Voting for Eugene
Until voters can vote their conscience, it's not a democracy!
Julia DeGraw; Coalition Director, Oregon League of Conservation Voters; former candidate, Portland City Commission, Position 2
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 of Arcimoto and 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.