Whether you're drafting an email or are ready to organize an event, the STAR Voting Outreach Kit is for you! This page hosts an email template you can use as a jumping off point to write to legislators, community leaders, or just people you know, along with helpful graphics you can attach to your email like a sample ballot or a one sheet explainer. You can also print and cut out postcards volunteers can send out for a targeted outreach campaign to get sombody's attention.

You can access all of the files in the Outreach Kit Google Drive Folder. There are previews of each item plus a link to our "How Does STAR Voting Work?" video below. Email [email protected] if you have questions.

 

STAR Voting Outreach Kit

 

Outreach Email Template
Want to email someone about STAR Voting? We've got you halfway there! Use the text and resources in this template either verbatim or as inspiration for your own letter.

 

One Sheet
Great as an attachment for your emails.

 

Sample Ballot
One of the best visuals to give anyone! Everything you need to know, right on the ballot. Great as an attachment for your emails or for posting on social media. 

 

 How Does STAR Voting Work? (Infographic)
For anyone who might like a more in-depth breakdown of how STAR Voting is counted. Great as an attachment for your emails or for posting on social media. 

 

 Postcards
Print these out and cut along the lines so you and your team can send handwritten notes to anyone whose attention you need to grab. Great for legislators and influencers who won't return an email. 

 

 How Does STAR Voting Work? (Video)
A clean and professional video illustrating how to vote with STAR Voting and how ballots are counted. 


Ranked Choice Voting Outreach Kit

While we prefer to keep it positive, talking about STAR begs the question, "What about RCV?" The following fact sheets and materials can be very compelling ways to share information that may be quite different from what people have heard from RCV advocates in the past.

 

Comparing STAR and RCV 
Both ballots, side by side, with instructions and tabulation. 

 

Single-Winner Voting Method Scorecard
Comparing Choose One, RCV, and STAR at a glance.

 

Wasted Votes? Choose One, RCV, and STARLooking at types of wasted votes in all three voting methods.

 

Central Tabulation - STAR vs RCV
With STAR Voting ballots are tallied locally, with RCV ballots require centralized tabulation. 

 

 Real World Failures
One of the most common arguments made in favor of RCV is that it's been used a lot. What's often left out is the problems RCV causes when it is used. 

 

 Alaska Failure
The August 2022 Alaska Special General election was contentious. The winner ran a great campaign and won fair and square by the rules of the game, but the rules caused an undemocratic outcome. 

 

Alameda County Failure
Unlike effectively every other single-winner voting method (including STAR Voting), Ranked Choice Voting requires tabulation to be centralized to a single point of failure. This necessarily eliminates vital checks and balances that ensure election integrity. For the first time ever, the wrong candidate in a US public election was declared the winner, certified, and seated, and the reason is Ranked Choice Voting.

 

New York City Failure
Unlike effectively every other single-winner voting method (including STAR Voting), Ranked Choice Voting requires tabulation to be centralized to a single point of failure. This necessarily eliminates vital checks and balances that ensure election integrity. In New York City, this enabled a historically error-prone board of elections to single-handedly mis-tally a race with nearly a million voters.

 

RCV Peer Review - Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant Runoff Voting in San Francisco
Highlighted content from a peer reviewed article in the California Journal of Politics and Policy

 

 RCV Peer Review - Ballot (and Voter Exhaustion)

 

RCV Peer Review - Frequency of Monotonicity Failure
"Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) suffers from a defect known as nonmonotonicity, wherein increasing support for a candidate among a subset of voters may adversely affect that candidate's election outcome"

 

Voided Ballots in RCV
It's easier to fill out an RCV ballot incorrectly than correctly. Check out how this affects ballot spoilage rates.

 

Study - Minority Disenfranchisement and Exhausted Ballots in RCV
Despite claims about improvements in minority representation, the real-world data has demonstrated that RCV increases demographic disparities in voter engagement.

 

Study - False Majorities in RCV
RCV advocates often claim that RCV always produces a majority winner. However, the way in which RCV achieves this is disingenuous and misleading.

 

 Constitutional Compliance
We went through all 50 state constitutions and documented the legal viability of different voting methods. It turns out that RCV is unconstitutional for at least some races in nearly every state. 
 

Oregon HB 2004 Ranked Choice Voting Act Fact Sheet

RCV bill introduced in the Oregon Legislature in the 2023 long session and amended in the Rules Committee. The PNG image is great for sharing on social media and with friends while the PDF document is great for sharing as an attachment in emails and other targeted outreach.