Help choose a name for our project!

After working for many months to establish the Score Runoff Voting moniker, I personally have very little interest in renaming the system at this point, and I don't find the reasoning here compelling -- I'd expect very few lay voters are going to have bullet voting concerns based on the name. Like "rating", there is high general comprehension of what the word "score" means.

Generally I like the name Star Voting, especially if it's an acronym: S.T.A.R. (Score, Two Advance Runoff) Voting could be cool... although then the full acronym would be STARV. Maybe people are STARVing for real democracy?

Having a different name for the same system from one area to another may add confusion, especially when going from local to state and national races.

Agreed. We absolutely can't change the name of the voting system or for Equal Vote without Mark's agreeing that it would be worth it! There are obviously major downsides to that level of change at this stage, so the improvement would have to be really significant and compelling. Our Portland organization (Currently a subgroup of RCV OR) can have it's own name and be distinct from his Equal Vote group (as it is now) or it could be a subgroup of it, which would be simple and convenient all around since we have the same overall mission. At the last meeting Mark sounded open minded about names for our group and maybe even his, which I appreciate. If he's convinced great, if not I totally respect that too.

There are huge benefits for having great memorable names for both the voting system and the organization. I'm not sure that the existing names offer that. A change would have to happen now, before we launch a ballot measure. If not now than never. I do think SRV and Equal Vote are okay, and if we go with them I'll go along too. I like that the voting method name explains how the system works, (Score Runoff). I like that the organization name (Equal Vote) is goal oriented. The problem is that people are constantly messing up the name Score Runoff when they try and tell people about it. People often just glaze over when I say Score Runoff Voting or worse, SRV. Acronyms in general loose people. People often tell me they don't get what I mean by "equal" when I mention the organization or the criteria and how it relates in this context. Equality is a super key criteria but a bit of a complex one.

I'm hoping for enough dialogue to happen here that we can come to a consensus soon! We need concrete names and branding for a lot of our next steps. May 6th is a natural deadline because we are officiating the vote at PDX Forward's Spring Thing event May 6th!

I like the names Star Voting and Star Runoff Voting. I think they sound better than Score. Although I think Score Runoff Voting is good as well.

I think both of the above are better than Equal Vote.
Then Reclaim the vote, and then Unfuck the vote comes in last. I don't think we will be taken seriously or win anything if we include an F bomb in any of our names. It makes for a funny/edgy t-shirt but that's about it.

Since RCV passed in Benton County as well as in Maine, what has worked there for the message?

Background on Ranked Choice Voting
In Benton County they passed Instant Runoff Voting (a type of Ranked Choice Voting*) using a pretty goal oriented campaign. Alan Zundel knows more about the specifics of that campaign, but in general IRV advocates talk about how it's a better system than what we have now.

The most common IRV selling points are that it allows voters to vote their conscience, (Often false,) that it solves the Nader Effect vote splitting problem, (False) and that it's better than our current system. (True in my opinion but debatable).

I'm not sure if Benton's campaign used these super common oversold claims at the beginning or not but they have upgraded their wording now.

The whole truth is that IRV moves closer to the goal of allowing honest voting and it is less likely to case a Nader effect failure in the election (where the wrong candidate wins,) but these problems aren't fully solved and major problems do come up. In elections with more than 2 strong candidates IRV often eliminates the candidate who actually should have won in the first round before all the data was looked at. Whoops!

IRV was a step in the right direction, but it just isn't the holy grail of election reform that we'd hoped it was. When IRV was seen as "the best we've got right now" a lot of people didn't see the point in highlighting its shortcomings but the fact is we need real democracy! People need to be able to vote their conscience honestly, every voter and candidate should be treated equally and the system shouldn't play favorites, we need a very accurate system that still works with multiple parties and any number of strong candidates. Score Runoff Voting is the only system that offers all that and is still simple enough to be viable.

Strategy for marketing SRV
We can definitely use a goal based approach to convince people to use our system. Score Runoff Voting actually delivers on the criteria that IRV was chipping away at! That's the easy part.

The tricky thing here is just getting the many groups we represent consolidated into one solid unit and having a clear and memorable name that will catch people. That name has been Equal Vote. Does this name mean something to you? Do you get why SRV is Equal and why our current system and IRV aren't, or does that all require explanation?

Also, Score Runoff Voting, the name of the voting system, seems to be confusing people. People get it mixed up with Ranked Choice Voting and Instant Runoff Voting. Too many 3 letter acronyms!! SRV, RCV, IRV, argh!! Can the name SRV stand on its own and be remembered or will it continue to confuse people?

• Note: Ranked Choice Voting and Instant Runoff Voting are often used interchangeably but in fact they shouldn't be. Instant Runoff is a specific Voting System. Ranked Choice Voting is a family of voting systems.

Score Runoff Voting uses rankings in its 2nd round runoff, but scoring in the first round so it's a hybrid of Score Voting and Ranked Choice Voting.

Thanks everyone for all your feedback on names, wording, and branding over the last few weeks. We've come to some decisions that will help us move forward and get the word out effectively and memorably!

We've decided to rebrand Score Runoff Voting as Star Voting! Score Runoff Voting is a great technical and descriptive name but the three letter acronym is too easy to confuse with RCV and IRV. We have all slipped up and mixed up the words rank and runoff and score and choice. Where it's needed for clarity, especially when you are talking to people who have heard of SRV before please feel free to say SRV or Score Runoff but from here on out our main press focus will be referring to this as Star Voting! Star Voting also works as an acronym: S+AR Voting= Score Plus Automatic Runoff or STAR=Score Then Advance Runoff.

The name Star Voting refers to the 5 star rating ballot and conveys the idea that this is the voting version of the already familiar 5 Star ratings that people give on Amazon and Yelp all the time. Star Voting is the most effective way to use 5 Star ratings to select a winner.

We have also decided to merge our Star Voting focused Portland Group with Equal Vote. (We have been meeting and making decisions here in PDX as Ranked Choice Voting Oregon since December and these decisions were made by the steering committee that was appointed at our general meetings.) Equal Vote plans to grow into a non-profit and organization that will work on passing Star Voting in Oregon and beyond!

RCV Oregon, the group founded by Alan Zundel, will continue to exist and we will continue to participate and collaborate together. RCV Oregon is planning on keeping their name but may chose to change what the acronym stands for in order to be more inclusive and to avoid confusion since this group has voted multiple times that it prefers SRV (Star Voting) as the best reform. The mission will stay the same. Working for a better voting system for Oregon! We know they are considering Real Choice Voting but the word choice can imply another unrelated political movement. I propose we consider ReClaim the Vote Oregon.

Thanks for staying involved and for all your feedback! Let's keep working together and spread the word!