STAR voting

In the automatic runoff round, the finalist who was given a higher score on a greater number of ballots is selected as the winner.

The concept was first proposed in October 2014 by Mark Frohnmayer, and was initially called score runoff voting (SRV).

[5][6] The first movement to implement STAR voting was centered in Oregon,[7][8] with chapters in Eugene, Portland, Salem, Astoria, and Ashland.

[23] In 2022, the Libertarian Party of Oregon authorized STAR voting for its internal elections starting in 2023.

For comparison, traditional first-past-the-post would elect Memphis, even though most citizens consider it the worst choice, because 42% is larger than any other single city.

Instant-runoff voting would elect the second-worst choice (Knoxville) because the central candidates would be eliminated early.

In approval voting, with each voter selecting their top two cities, Nashville would also win because of the significant boost from Memphis residents.

In this particular case, there is no way for any single city of voters to get a better outcome through tactical voting; however, Chattanooga and Knoxville voters combined could vote strategically to make Chattanooga win; while Memphis and Nashville voters could defend against that strategy and ensure Nashville still won by strategically giving Nashville a higher rating and/or Chattanooga and Knoxville lower ratings.

In most cases, ties in STAR voting can be broken by referring back to the ballots themselves for either the scoring or runoff round.