STAR Voting — concept pages

Everything explaining STAR (Score Then Automatic Runoff). New here? Start with STAR — start here. Got a "wait, but isn't it…?" doubt? Common misunderstandings. Arms-crossed skeptic? STAR for skeptics. The case for it, in brief: The benefits of STAR Voting. Have a specific question? The STAR Voting FAQ — mechanics, with worked examples answers the how-the-count-works questions (runoff, Equal Support, summability, preference matrix…) each with a runnable election.

Hands-on: Run a paper-ballot STAR demo — print real paper ballots (with a live "scan to vote" QR) from a BetterVoting election, vote, hand-count, and check it against the official tally. Count a STAR election by hand — tally a real election with pencil and paper (add the stars → top two → count the runoff). Presenting it? Teaching STAR Voting — the order, the terms, the examples, the misconceptions to head off.

The count — two rounds

• The Scoring Round — Round 1: add the stars, top two advance
• The Automatic Runoff — Round 2: the majority-preferred finalist wins (runoff percentages / two denominators · slide version)
• The second round — FAQ & how to answer twisted claims — what each round measures, the false-vs-fair objections, and the runoff reversal conceded honestly
• STAR's hybrid nature — why it's a score ballot plus a runoff

The ballot

• The STAR ballot & voting styles — what the ballot looks like, and the full gallery of legal ways to fill it out, one page per style
• Tie-breaking — the tiebreak ladder (pairwise → five-star → lot)

Properties & honest limits

• Three notions of "winner" (score / runoff / Condorcet)
• Monotonicity · Summability · Equally-weighted vote
• Honest limits · Residual vote-splitting · Favorite betrayal (301)

Reference & conversations

• History: A short history of STAR Voting — where it came from, the timeline, and where it stands (adopted for party/org elections; government ballot measures haven't passed yet)
• Glossary: STAR terms
• Conversation scripts: What's so good about STAR · Aren't equal-score votes discounted?
• Outside explainers, videos & official guides: STAR Voting — resources & further watching

(Up: the docs hub 00_START_HERE.)