How we vote
Debt-weighted STAR voting.
Ballot
Score every book from 0 to 5.
Count
- Scoring round: the two books with the highest total score are the finalists.
- Runoff: each ballot is a vote for whichever finalist it scored higher. Ballots that scored them equally count for neither. The finalist with more votes wins.
Weights
Each ballot is multiplied by the voter’s weight, in both rounds.
weight = attendance × max(0.3, 1 + debt)
After each election, each voter’s happiness is the score they gave the winner divided by the highest score on their ballot. Then:
debt = 0.75 × debt + (average happiness of voters − your happiness)
- Non-voters’ debt is multiplied by 0.75 and nothing is added.
- A first-time voter starts at the median debt.
- Attendance = 0.6 + 0.1 × credits, up to 1.0. Credits: +1 per election voted in, −0.5 per election missed, kept between 0 and 8.
Example
| Voter | Weight | Book X | Book Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | 1.6 | 5 | 1 |
| Ben | 0.8 | 2 | 5 |
| Cal | 0.7 | 3 | 4 |
Scores: X 11.7, Y 8.4. Runoff: X 1.6, Y 1.5. X wins. Unweighted, Y wins the runoff 2–1.
Ties
- Scoring round: head-to-head wins among the tied books, then most 5s, then lot.
- Runoff: higher total score, then most 5s, then lot.
Lots are drawn from a fixed seed per election, so recounts give the same result.
Elections can also use plain STAR (all weights 1). Plain-STAR elections still update debt.