On this episode: On May 21st, voters in Eugene, Oregon, will decide whether or not to replace the existing electoral system with STAR voting for Mayor and City Council Elections. If approved, the city would become the first in the world to utilize this system for electing their political leaders.
Through STAR voting, voters rate candidates for a given office on a scale of zero to five, with zero indicating no support and five indicating maximum support. The scores for all candidates are then tabulated and the top highest-scored candidates advance to an automatic runoff, at which time a voter's full vote is assigned to whichever of the two candidates he or she scored highest. The candidate whom a greater number of voters gave a higher score in the runoff is declared the winner.
KLCC reporter Nathan Wilk, who's been covering the proposal, and Ballotpedia’s Joe Greaney, join the show to share how Eugene Measure 20-349 got on the ballot, local perception of the proposal, how STAR voting works, and what the arguments for and against the election system are.
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Learn more about the Ballot Measure here: https://ballotpedia.org/Eugene,_Oregon,_Measure_20-349,_STAR_Voting_for_Mayor_and_City_Council_Elections_Initiative_(May_2024)
Read Wilk’s reporting: https://www.klcc.org/politics-government/2024-04-23/eugene-could-adopt-star-voting-for-city-elections-how-would-this-work :
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*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.