Glossary — STAR Voting¶
Method-specific terms for STAR (Score Then Automatic Runoff). Shared, cross-method vocabulary (monotonicity, Condorcet, summability, the Equal Vote criterion, spoiler / vote-splitting…) lives in the main glossary — this page only defines what's specific to STAR.
- STAR — Score Then Automatic Runoff: score every candidate 0–5; the two highest totals advance to an automatic head-to-head runoff. → STAR — start here
- Scoring round — STAR's first round: add up each candidate's scores; the top two become finalists. → concept The Scoring Round; demo
equal_support_runoff_demo - Finalists — the two highest-scoring candidates, who advance to the runoff. → the round that chooses them, The Scoring Round; the round they compete in, The Automatic Runoff.
- Automatic runoff — STAR's second round: each ballot counts as a full vote for whichever finalist it scored higher; the preferred finalist wins. → concept The Automatic Runoff; the slide version, as slides; common questions, second-round FAQ
- Equal Support — scoring the two finalists the same; counts as "no preference" between them in the runoff (still fully counted in the scoring round). The aka is documented once in the main glossary. → "Aren't Equal-Score Votes Just Discounted?"
- Runoff Reversal — the Scoring-Round leader loses the Automatic Runoff to the finalist more voters prefer (the score winner ≠ the STAR winner). Not a malfunction — the runoff elects the finalist preferred by the majority (of voters with a preference); the engine flags it with a
[Runoff Reversal]block. House term: "the runoff overturns the score leader." → walkthrough Runoff Reversal - Majority finish — STAR's runoff guarantees the winner beats the runner-up among voters who expressed a preference between them. Note the denominator: decided voters, with Equal Support set aside. → Runoff percentages — which denominator, and why
- Three notions of "winner" — Condorcet / Score / Runoff can name three different candidates in one election; STAR targets the runoff winner by design. → Three Notions of "Winner" — Condorcet, Score, and Runoff
- Tiebreak ladder — resolves ties in each round: Scoring Round pairwise → five-star → lot; Runoff score → five-star → lot. "Five-star" counts votes of the scale maximum. Full detail: STAR Tie-Breaking — The Full Chain.
- Five-star rung — the ladder's second step: "most votes of score 5 (the scale maximum)." It counts only 5s — it does not step down to 4s. → STAR Tie-Breaking — The Full Chain
- Dead rung — the five-star rung when no tied candidate scored a 5 (e.g. all scores capped at 4): it reads
0–0, separates nobody, and the tie falls through to the lot. Equal non-zero five-star counts do the same. Mnemonics: "no fives, no rung — drop to the lot" / "it counts fives, not fours." akas: broken / missing / empty / phantom rung. → cases The "dead rung" · generatorgenerate_dead_rung_scenarios.py - Quorum — an opt-in turnout threshold (
eligible_voters+quorum): enough of the eligible electorate must participate or no winner is declared. → Quorum — did enough of the electorate show up? - Bloc STAR — multi-winner STAR electing the top N (at-large / majoritarian, not proportional). → 02_STAR_Bloc — Bloc STAR (multi-winner, majoritarian)
- Proportional STAR — multi-winner STAR variants (Allocated Score, Sequentially Spent Score, RRV) giving proportional representation. → 03_STAR_PR — proportional STAR (multi-winner)
Shared criteria STAR is judged on — monotonicity, Condorcet efficiency, summability, later-no-harm, the Equal Vote criterion — are in the main glossary.