Loomio
Thu 11 May 2017 12:39AM

SRV is now Star Voting! Our name questions are solved!

SW Sara Wolf Public Seen by 22

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 for our voting system 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!

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

CS

Clay Shentrup Thu 11 May 2017 12:46AM

Cool!

AW

Aaron Wolf Thu 11 May 2017 1:10AM

We have all slipped up and mixed up the words rank and runoff and score and choice

Not all of us have done that ;)

S+AR Voting= Score Plus Automatic Runoff or STAR=Score Then Advance Runoff

That's hella clever (and I think "automatic" is better than "advance") but you better also be focusing on giving candidates "stars" instead of numeric scores. I like marking number of stars (which is numeric still in the end).

As someone involved in similar challenges in other projects, I think you're making the right decision to go with the corny thing you don't prefer internally but that will simply gain mindshare better and with less confusion. People objected to the corniness of "Feel the Bern" but it worked…

Re: a term for the umbrella issue of voting reform (around "RCV Oregon"), I suggest that "preferential voting" is a nice term, but not sure how to make that fit.

Anyway, congrats! I look forward to seeing the updated stuff and telling people about why we need to support and promote S+AR voting!

MF

Mark Frohnmayer Thu 11 May 2017 1:40AM

You can see the first cut at the branding addition at http://equal.vote . I expect we'll use Star Voting, SRV and Score Runoff Voting interchangeably for a while until the new branding is fully adopted.

CS

Connor Salisbury Thu 11 May 2017 9:30AM

We had been talking to counties around the state, looking to PDX and Better Ballot Benton as early testing grounds, using the explanation that both the larger family of system and the specific reform system RCV was in essence IRV, or RCV-irv, and that SRV was in essence still a related reform in that family, RCV-srv.

The Douglas and Klamath people for instance had the understanding,
"Any type of RCV is better than our current plurality system in terms of yielding more democratic results more efficiently and avoiding unjust outcomes with edge-cases, split-votes, etc. so RCV-irv was a good reform to the current system, while RCV-srv was a better* reform."
*(better in terms of both fairness and logistics/cost of implementing on older southern/rural Oregon county ballot machines without upgrades or transporting ballots up to Salem or PDX for processing).
which we/I told them that was a fine way to boil it down when starting the process of educating their neighbors, who had varying levels of understanding.

... will the relationship and distinctions still be acceptable to explain that way to those who've heard a little bit about upgrades to plurality?

i.e. in the 'fine print' may we still categorize it, "'Star Voting' aka or formerly known as RCV-srv" ... or is the idea to completely disassociate with the older RCV (IRV) form?

Seems like it would be good to keep those who were fans of RCV 1.0 (RCV-irv) but open to RCV 2.0 (RCV-srv / "Star Voting") with equal or greater preference or reform enthusiasts with limited knowledge but positive association with "RCV" on board, rather than making those who support RCV 1.0 as a stepping stone into rivals would be helpful, but I don't want to deviate from agreed upon messaging as I evangelize in other counties.

SW

Sara Wolf Thu 11 May 2017 10:03AM

It's fine to keep on talking to people however you think is working! Star Voting (SRV) is still a hybrid of scoring and ranking. It's still RCV 2.0. It's still Score Runoff Voting, technically.

The goal here is to have a memorable name for Score Runoff Voting that people aren't getting mixed up with Ranked Choice Voting. We don't want people to think that this is IRV!

If you are telling new people about this please lead with Star Voting and help us get the word out so we can grow some name recognition and outgrow the name confusion! If you are talking to people who learned about this under a different name feel free to explain it's now Star Voting if they are interested. In Benton, where "RCV" passed I see how it's important to link Star Voting in with RCV and the ballot measure. Whatever works to promote the system and prevent confusion! Thanks!