Two initiative petitions proposed for the November 2024 election have been filed with the Oregon Secretary of State to significantly change the way Oregonians vote. Initiative Petitions 11 and 12 are the same, except that the former contains a provision for presidential elections.

Chief Petitioners for the initiatives are Deanna Kallen and Bryan Lewis of Portland and Zach Hudson of Troutdale.

The text of the initiatives describes how the process works:

For each seat up for election by means of STAR Voting, votes shall be tallied using a two-round process which consists of a scoring round and an automatic runoff round. The scoring round shall calculate the sum total of the scores received by each candidate and determine the two candidates who received the greatest total scores. Those two candidates shall be the finalists and shall advance to the automatic runoff round, where the finalist preferred by more voters wins.

According to the website, starvoting.us "In STAR Voting, voters fill in the bubbles to score candidates from zero up to five stars. Voters give their favorite(s) five stars, their last choice(s) zero stars, and score other candidates as they like. The five-star ballot allows voters to show their preference order and indicate their level of support for all of the candidates. Voters are allowed to give candidates the same score, if they support them equally. Candidates left blank receive zero stars.

"With STAR Voting we could skip the low-turnout primary and just vote once in November. STAR Voting eliminates vote splitting and the spoiler effect, so it’s highly accurate with any number of candidates in the race. Skipping the primary would save taxpayers money, would save voters time, and the shorter campaign season would make it much more accessible for grassroots candidates to run for office.

"For situations where a primary is needed, such as partisan primaries or the presidential primary, STAR Voting can be used for either or both elections."




--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2022-08-09 11:04:28

Last Update: 2022-08-09 13:24:14