Origin Story - the Equal Vote Coalition

The Equal Vote Coalition was first conceived in 2014 by Mark Frohnmayer following the launch of the 2014 campaign for the Unified Primary system in Oregon, which consisted of a nonpartisan Approval Voting primary with a top-two runoff. The Unified Primary system has since been adopted in St. Louis.

The name is a reference to the Equality Criterion, an electoral test which can be used to determine if a voting method eliminates vote-splitting by ensuring that every voter can always cast an equal and opposite vote, no matter how many candidates are in the race. "The voting franchise provides votes of equal weight to all the voters if and only if for each possible vote expression that one voter may cast in an election, there exists another expression of the vote that another voter can cast that is in balance – such that the outcome of an election is the same whether both or neither votes are counted."

As it's first event, the Equal Vote Coalition hosted an Equal Vote Conference at the University of Oregon which included leading advocates for Approval Voting, Ranked Choice Voting, Score Voting, and leaders in the Oregon voting reform movement including advocates for Oregon's Vote by Mail initiative. At the time, the reform community was very split between advocates for ordinal voting methods and cardinal voting methods, with both sides arguing that the other side's proposals were unworkable. The debate led to the idea for what is now known as the STAR Voting method, which is a hybrid of the two approaches.

In 2017, preliminary studies modeling Voter Satisfaction Efficiency from the Center For Election Science showed STAR Voting significantly outperforming both Ranked Choice and Approval Voting in both producing accurate outcomes and incentivizing honest non-strategic voting. The models also showed that a 0-5 ballot performed as well as the original 0-9 scale, which led the Equal Vote Coalition to adopt the 0-5 star ballot officially and to rename the method STAR Voting. Shortly after, the Equal Vote Coalition coalitioned with a number of other Oregon electoral reform organizations which had voted to support STAR Voting, including RCV Oregon, and the Oregon chapter of Represent.Us, and launched twin ballot initiatives to implement STAR Voting in Lane County and Multnomah County, respectively.

The Equal Vote Coalition was incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2019 by Sara Wolk and Brian Skinner with a founding Board of Mark Frohnmayer, Alan Zundel, and Sara Wolk. Initially focused in Oregon, the coalition has since expanded its efforts across the United States and internationally, engaging with researchers and activists to promote voting equality. In 2020 the STAR Voting Action 501c4 nonprofit was founded to focus on advocacy and campaigns for STAR Voting more specifically. 

While our mission and mandate remain largely unchanged, our scope and impact continue to grow with our team and we look forward to the next era in voting reform and a future where every vote and every voter will be equally powerful. 

To learn more about who we are and what we do click here.