Bloc STAR Voting
Bloc STAR Voting
Multi-winner voting method ( Multi-member systems) elects multiple candidates in one election.
Single-winner STAR determines the first winner, and the same process is repeated to determine the second winner, and so on, until all seats are filled.
Bloc STAR is a great choice for use in multi-member districts and for multi-winner elections where the goal is to elect or advance majority preferred winners with the strongest popular support overall. Single winner elections are the best for ensuring local representation but Bloc STAR may be the best choice where further subdividing an area or electorate wouldn't make sense, or for elected bodies where geographic representation is not relevant.
- Ideal for primaries which aim to advance the top set of candidates.
- Great for multi-winner elections where the goal is to elect a council where each winner has majority support.
- Ensures that the candidates with the strongest popular support are elected.
- Maximizes accountability. A majority of voters opposed to a given candidate could vote them out or prevent them from getting elected in the first place.
- Gives voters more candidates to choose from than single-winner elections, which can be a real advantage in smaller communities where finding candidates to run at all is a problem.
- Balances some of the pros and cons between proportional and single winner elections offering an option in the middle.
- Multi-winner Bloc STAR may be an end goal in some cases, but is also a good stepping-stone reform for those working towards proportional representation.
Warning against At Large Elections
Even with Bloc STAR, at large elections should never be used in jurisdictions with localized historically marginalized communities. This is especially important in jurisdictions where minority populations or factions are clustered in one sector of a multi-seat district. At-large bloc voting in general can and has been used to prevent minority populations from getting representation who would have otherwise been able to win representation in a single-winner district, and was banned in the Voting Rights Act for this reason.
Procedure
Elect the first winner as you would in single-winner STAR Voting method, then repeat the process until all seats are filled.
Each voter scores all the candidates on a scale from 0–5. All the scores are added and the two highest scoring candidates advance to an automatic runoff.
The finalist who was preferred by (scored higher by) more voters wins the first seat.
The next two highest scoring candidates then runoff, with the finalist preferred by more voters winning the next seat. This process continues until all positions are filled.
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