01_STAR / 02_Examples — the STAR teaching progression¶
The core single-winner STAR sequence: the smallest examples that introduce one idea at a time, from the team-lunch example up through vote-splitting and quorum. Read the reader-friendly pages (cases/cases_pages/); the .yaml beside each is the tabulatable source, and the always-full audit copy is in cases/cases_tabulated/.
Then the headline lesson, as its own set: Runoff Reversal — top scorer ≠ winner, where the Automatic Runoff overturns the Scoring-Round leader.
The arc¶
Each link goes to the reader-friendly page; the tabulatable .yaml sits beside it in this folder under the filename shown on the page.
⭐ The running example — the team lunch. The one a newcomer meets first: five coworkers, three lunches, and the compromise everyone likes wins. Live on BetterVoting.
- The team lunch vote — the beginner example (paired with STAR — start here) · live ↗
The canonical mechanics demo. The exact election quoted in the root README and the authoring docs — three voters, three candidates, both rounds doing visible work, no twist on purpose.
- Ann, Bob, Cal — the canonical leading example · live ↗ — reuse rules & the full canonical set: TIPS — Canonical Elections
Intros — three candidates (101). How a STAR ballot is scored and read, where the third option makes the two rounds matter.
Ballot styles. The choices a voter can make on a STAR ballot.
- A valid bullet vote · Low-score "protest" ballots · …low-score ballots, continued · Eight ways to fill out one ballot · five more ways — approval-style, exaggerated compromise, partial, compressed, null
- STAR à la Approval — scoring only 0/5 (Approval-style)
- Traditional style — one mark each — every voter bullet-votes, so the scoring round is just a first-choice count · live ↗
Equal support & abstentions. How "no preference" and blank scores are counted.
- Equal Support — counted in both rounds · Abstentions — blank & abstaining ballots · Unanimous ballots
- Eight ambiguous CSV lines, disambiguated — every marker in one file, and an all-zero ballot that is not an abstention; the lesson it backs is Eight lines of CSV, eight questions
Majorities & denominators. What "over 50%" turns out to mean once you ask of what.
- Over 50% — every point on every ballot · live ↗ — the ceiling case: score share, ballot share and decided-voter share all agree, and the runoff still runs. Its two-seat twin, where the same dominance buys exactly one seat: Over 50% — what a landslide actually buys
Score shape — what the average hides. Two candidates can tie on the total and still be nothing alike.
- Same mean, different spread — a flat 3 from everyone vs three 5s and two 0s, both totalling 15; Score can't separate them, Approval takes the consensus candidate, the runoff takes the polarizing one. The lesson it backs is Variance — the statistical name for "divisive"
Larger fields & the runoff. Where the scoring round has to choose two finalists.
- Large field (9 candidates) — Equal Support decides · Large field — the runoff overturns the leader · Tennessee capital (the classic) · When Condorcet, Score & Runoff disagree
- The FAQ runoff reversal — the scoring leader loses; live on BetterVoting · live ↗
Vote-splitting (why STAR resists the spoiler).
- Two chocolates split the majority: part 1 · part 2 · part 3
- Scenario 1 — the spoiler strikes · Scenario 2 — bloc leader wins anyway · Scenario 3 — the outsider truly wins
Quorum (turnout threshold).
Display options (engine reporting).
Up: 01_STAR — single-winner STAR Voting · Concept docs: STAR — start here