About Us

Mark graduated from UC Berkeley in 1996 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. After 11 years in the gaming industry and the sale of his first startup, Mark turned his entrepreneurial energy towards sustainable transportation and election science, founding electric vehicle company, Arcimoto, in 2007, and the Equal Vote Coalition in 2014.

Annie is chair of the Equal Vote Coalition and has been advocating for STAR voting and other better voting methods since 2018. She lives in Portland, Oregon and volunteers for a variety of causes, particularly those having to do with advocacy and support for immigrants and refugees, youth in communities with need, and election reform. Her passion is in helping people in underserved regions acquire more of a voice in policies, more access to public resources, and more opportunities to build community. She received an English degree from Portland State University in 2001, and has worked for a renewable energy company for the last 15 years. In her free time she sews, hikes, does 3D design and other art, and enjoys learning new things.

Ruben Michael Montejano is a board member at Equal Vote and the Outreach Coordinator for the STAR Voting California Chapter. He has been an advocate for voting reform since 2018 and helped start-up the STAR Voting California Chapter. Moreover, he focuses on conservation for natives plants in his local areas and is currently a student as well as a Behavior Interventionist. In his spare time, Ruben is probably hiking, planting, researching a variety of topics from plant conservation to voting reform, or relaxing with family and/or friends.

Sara Wolk has been a leading force behind the STAR Voting project since the beginning. ​Sara was a Chief Petitioner for the first ballot initiative for STAR Voting in Multnomah County and also worked on the STAR Voting for Eugene campaign before taking on her current post as the Executive Director of the Equal Vote Coalition in 2018. With a background in sustainability and design, and a passion for music, adventure, and community organizing, she is dedicated to building the kind of coalition that can heal democracy. Systemic problems require design based solutions.

Brian Skinner is the Vice President of the Equal Vote and Star Voting Action nonprofits. He was an integral part in guiding the organization through the foundation process and has been a campaign volunteer since the first campaign initiative in Lane county. He served as the campaign treasurer for the city of Eugene and Lane county campaigns. Coming from a background in geospatial and social sciences, Brian has extensive experience in nonprofit development. He is a co-founder and the President of Atlas Solutions, a nonprofit dedicated to mapping neighborhood sustainability and urban farming and also assisted in the foundation process of The Mambira Foundation, a nonprofit celebrating the cultural heritage and technological innovation of Africa.

Jas graduated with a Masters in Political Management, is a board director for both STAR Voting Action and Equal Vote, is the owner of Awakenings Wellness Center in Portland, Oregon and was a past chair for the Oregon Public Bank Alliance. Jas has been an activist and community organizer for decades. He is a devoted father who enjoys hiking and camping in his spare time.

Keith Edmonds is a Data Scientist by profession and a Physicist by training. He is the Director of Canadian Electoral Research for the Equal Vote Coalition. He invented Vote Unitarity and subsequently derived Sequentially Spent Score from its principle. He also derived Single distributed vote as a more natural extension of Sequential proportional approval voting to Score voting ballots than Reweighted Range Voting. He invented STLR voting as a Utilitarian alternative to STAR voting for single winner elections.

Dr. Jameson Quinn has been involved in voting reform for over 20 years, and it was the inspiration for him to get his PhD in statistics from Harvard. He helped design the voting method used for nominations for the Hugo Awards, and wrote a paper with Bruce Schneier about the theory and impact of this method. With Mira Bernstein, he co-organized the 2018 British Columbia Symposium on Proportional Representation. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

Sass began his deep dive into voting method reform in 2020 and quickly discovered a passion for it. They have a relentless passion for voter empowerment and attribute much of their growth in the voting method reform space to the welcoming and inclusive culture nurtured at Equal Vote. Sass is eager to dabble in new and diverse escapades, with experience ranging from music writing, to political activism, to martial arts. If you ever find yourself in the Austin, TX area, be sure to ask Sass to go sing some karaoke with you!

Like many, Mont Chris has felt forced to vote "lesser evil" many times, and would prefer that never happen again. Mont Chris is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Musicians Union Local 99 and helped get his union to adopt STAR Voting. When he's not talking about voting methods and unionism to city commissioners, state legislators, or cornered family members at Thanksgiving, Mont Chris enjoys playing music and board games.

Mike has been involved in the voting reform community since 2017 with his primary goal of ending extreme political polarization. He joined the Equal Vote Coalition as a volunteer in 2020 and has helped start the STAR Voting California chapter and various STAR Voting software development projects. Mike graduated from Georgia Tech in 2015 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.