A recent letter to the editor proposed STAR voting as a means of addressing larger electoral issues. However, there seemed to be confusion between STAR voting and ranked choice voting, both in the letter and in Lookout’s newsletter. To be clear, they are not the same.

As someone who has campaigned extensively for STAR voting, I can tell you about many important differences between the two. With ranked choice voting, you must rank candidates in order of preference: no skipping ranks or giving the same number to more than one candidate or your ballot won’t be counted. With STAR, you have absolute freedom to score your candidates however you wish, whether you repeat scores or only score a few candidates of many. Every vote counts.

The tally is also quite different. With ranked choice voting, candidates are eliminated one by one through a series of runoffs. The order of elimination depends on the exact method of ranked choice voting implemented, although in most cases, it starts with eliminating the candidate with the fewest first-choice rankings first. This may be a long, drawn-out process, potentially taking over a month to tally. In contrast, with STAR, there are only two rounds of counting, which occur simultaneously: in the first round, the scores for each candidate are added up using simple arithmetic, with the two highest-scoring candidates advancing to the runoff. In the second round, whichever of the two candidates received a higher score from the most overall voters – regardless of their total numerical score – wins, making counting simpler and more fair.

There are important logistical concerns, as well. If ranked choice voting were adopted statewide, all ballots across the state would need to be shipped to Salem to be counted, having huge implications for transparency and accuracy. And by its very nature, counting wouldn’t be able to begin until all ballots are in hand, delaying results by weeks. In contrast, with STAR, tabulation would be kept at a local level and results aggregated across counties, as it is now, yielding more timely, accurate results.

It is well past time to implement voting reform, and I am grateful for the writer’s endorsement of STAR. However, we must not equate it with ranked choice voting.

Erica Lyon
Eugene