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)
Debt
After each election, for each voter:
- Happiness = (score you gave the winner − your lowest score) ÷ (your highest score − your lowest score). 1 if the winner was your top book, 0 if it was your bottom one.
- Stake = (your highest score − your lowest score) ÷ 5. Scoring every book the same is stake 0. Using the full 0–5 range is stake 1.
debt = 0.85 × debt + stake × (average happiness − your happiness)
The average happiness is weighted by stake. Debts across the club add up to zero.
- Non-voters’ debt is multiplied by 0.85 and nothing is added.
- Members who joined before the first election start with attendance 1.0.
- Members who join later start 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.
| Voter | A | B | C | Happiness | Stake | Debt change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ana | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 |
| Ben | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0.6 | 1 | +0.1 |
| Cal | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0.8 | 1 | −0.1 |
B wins. Average happiness (weighted by stake) is 0.7.
Weighted count 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.