STAR = Score Then Automatic Runoff. Paste the ballots — one voter per line, giving each candidate a score (0–5) — and this runs both halves: the score phase adds up every candidate's points to find the two finalists, then the automatic runoff gives each ballot to whichever finalist it scored higher. The finalist preferred by more ballots wins. It also shows the plain score-voting total and an approval tally for the same ballots. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Write each candidate as Name:score and separate them with commas. Scores are normally 0–5 (higher = better). A candidate left off a ballot counts as 0. Names are matched case-insensitively.
STAR voting stands for Score Then Automatic Runoff. Voters score every candidate on a scale (usually 0 to 5), the same way you'd rate films or restaurants. Counting happens in two steps. First the scoring round: add up each candidate's scores across all ballots; the two highest totals become the finalists. Then the automatic runoff: every ballot counts once for whichever of the two finalists it scored higher (a ballot that scored them equally expresses no preference and doesn't count in this step). The finalist preferred on more ballots is the winner. The runoff is what makes STAR resistant to the "bury a strong rival with a zero" tactic that can distort plain score voting.
Seven voters. Four score Ada 5, Ben 4, Cody 1; three score Ben 5, Cody 3, Ada 0. Score totals: Ben 31, Ada 20, Cody 13 — so plain score voting picks Ben, and the finalists are Ben and Ada. But in the automatic runoff, four ballots prefer Ada (they scored her above Ben) and only three prefer Ben, so STAR picks Ada — the candidate a majority actually ranks higher head-to-head. Load the example above to see both rounds. This split is the whole point of the runoff: the highest average score isn't always the candidate most voters prefer.
All three use a rated ballot rather than a ranking, which is what sets this family apart from the Borda count, instant-runoff and Condorcet methods (those take an order, not scores). Score voting simply elects the highest total. Approval voting is the special case where the only scores are 0 and 1 — you approve a candidate or you don't — and the most-approved wins. STAR keeps the expressive 0–5 ballot but adds the automatic runoff so the winner also has majority support between the top two. This calculator shows all three outcomes for the same ballots so you can see when they agree and when they diverge.
What score range should I use? STAR is standardly 0–5, but any non-negative numbers work here; the scale just needs to be the same for every voter.
What if a voter skips a candidate? A candidate with no score on a ballot is counted as 0 on that ballot.
Can it break a tie? Exact ties for a finalist slot or in the runoff are rare with real ballots; when they happen this tool breaks them deterministically by name and says so.
Is anything sent to a server? No. The entire count runs in your browser, so you can paste real ballots safely.