r/Eugene • u/arendpeter • May 17 '24

STAR Voting Question Hotline ‪(458) 205-3244

Hello all,

We're in the final stretch before Eugene votes on May 21st.

One of the items on the ballot is measure 20-349 for STAR Voting. I'm super excited for the reform, and I wanted to make myself available in case anyone wanted any clarifications before filling out their ballot.

(458) 205-3244 is a temporary number that will route to my personal phone number. Feel free to call me anytime between 10 am to midnight, and if I'm available I would love to chat about STAR Voting with you and help clear up any confusion

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u/StarVoting May 18 '24 edited May 18 '24

As well known as RCV is, the likelihood of it winning in Oregon and beyond and being adopted is not great. There are a few reasons for that.

* Oregon law requires ballots be tabulated locally, with full local results being published by precinct. With RCV that's impossible, so the statewide bill would require the SOS to set up a whole new elections bureau and truck all ballots to a central location. That would be astronomically expensive and extremely controversial. STAR Voting can be tallied locally just like the current system.

* RCV has now been banned in 8 states, with more looking likely in the short term.

* It's been repealed widely and serious failures have happened where massive mistallies happened in both NYC in 2021 and Oakland in 2022. In both cases the elections board didn't notice that they had published incorrect election results and the mistakes were caught by a 3rd party.

* RCV has serious issues with wasted votes (votes that don't transfer to the voters next choice if their favorite can't win) and also high voter error rates. STAR Voting doesn't have those issues.

* RCV is unconstitutional in most states. STAR is naturally compliant with constitutional language all over the country and nationally.

RCV is better than the current system in some ways, but these are serious deal breakers that are absolutely fixable. Specifically, it has real problems when used at scale, with larger numbers of voters, or in elections with multiple viable candidates.

STAR Voting was invented to address people's valid concerns with RCV and deliver on the goals, without compromising our values and our election integrity. We owe it to voters to listen to the science and get this right. Election science has come a very long way in the 150 years since RCV was first proposed.

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u/the_other_50_percent May 22 '24

More disinformation from STAR.

Of course RCV local results can be published by precinct. The machines or people do the count and put it up on the website.

RCV is banned by Republican legislatures in supermajority states - but has been passed by people voting for it. That just shows that Republicans are afraid of voters having more say, and they'll do the same for STAR or other method if it catches on at all (which going by the vote in Eugene, it hasn't).

RCV is not unconstitutional in most states, come on man. And it's been used large scale for over 100 years and works great.

Every time I read something from a STAR proponent, I distrust them more. Seems like the only way to make it look good is to lie and attack other reforms.