The DNC has approved the proposal to use modified STAR Voting* to elect Oregon's Presidential Delegates to the Democratic National Convention!


This historic decision launches 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.

Background: How the Democratic nominee is chosen.
Following the May 2020 Democratic Primary, each presidential candidate who got over 15% of the vote will receive a proportional number of delegates. 

STAR Voting will be used to elect Oregon's delegates for each candidate. These delegates will then go to the Democratic National Convention to elect the Democratic nominee. Any Oregon Democrat can run to be a delegate for their favorite candidate, and delegates will be elected in a series of internal party elections around the state.

At the Democratic National Convention conventional "choose-one-only" voting is used. Voting goes in rounds until a candidate has a majority:

  • 1st round: Delegates are pledged to their candidates. Superdelegates aren't allowed to vote.
  • 2nd round: Superdelegates are allowed to vote, in addition to the pledged delegates.
  • 3rd round: If no candidate has a majority the pledged delegates are now free to vote for the candidate of their choice, or to negotiate coalitions with the other delegates- all with the full weight of Oregon's voters behind them.
  • 4th round+: This continues until a candidate has a majority of all delegates.
     

STAR Voting was found to be the ONLY voting method that could meet the party's complex needs without compromising on the things that matter most:

  • Voters only need to vote once
  • No spoiler effect, no vote splitting
  • Majority preferred winner guaranteed
  • No centralized tabulation required for elections held around the state
  • Compatible with both hand counting and risk limiting audits
  • Compatible with both online voting with secure automatic tabulation, and also paper ballots.
  • Compatible with the DNC requirement that winners be gender-balanced and that elections be accessible for non-binary candidates

*"Modified STAR Voting" = Basic multi-winner STAR Voting will be used to produce a candidate ranking in order of support received. This list will then will be used to elect a balanced number of male and female candidates, with non-binary candidates fairly included.

 

UPDATE: To see how the election went and for a voter walk-through click here.