By JOHN QUICK
In this episode of the Must Read Alaska Show, host John Quick sits down with Mark Frohnmayer, who is a software and electric vehicle entrepreneur, as well as a pioneering advocate for electoral reform.
Mark shares his fascinating journey from being in the game development industry to sustainable transportation entrepreneurship and election science. With a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from University of California Berkeley, Mark’s innovative spirit has led him to create solutions across various fields.
We delve into Mark’s background, exploring some of his favorite memories and milestones, including his time as the lead programmer of popular games like Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2, and his pivotal role in founding the electric vehicle company, Arcimoto. Mark provides insights into the challenges and triumphs of launching a sustainable transportation startup and his experiences serving on the Oregon Transportation Commission.
The conversation takes a deep dive into electoral reform as Mark discusses the inception of the Equal Vote Coalition and the creation of the STAR voting system.
He explains why he believes STAR voting is far superior to the rank-choice voting system, emphasizing its core criteria of Equality, Honesty, Accuracy, Expressiveness, and Simplicity.
Here’s how STAR voting works:
- – Voters score each candidate on a scale of zero to five.
- – The candidate you like the most is the one you score highest.
- – The two candidates who receive the most of the highest scores become finalists and enter an automatic runoff.
- – During the automatic runoff, a ballot counts as one vote for the finalists that the voter scored higher.
STAR voting was recently given to voters as an option to use in the future. On the ballot in Eugene, Ore. this month, it was rejected. It is criticized by those the big players who promote ranked-choice voting and is viewed by them as unwelcome competition with RCV. Learn more about STAR voting at this link.
While host John Quick remains critical of both STAR and ranked-choice voting systems, Quick recognizes the importance of having a dialogue with those who have different views.
Tune in for an enlightening and thought-provoking discussion with Mark Frohnmayer, as we explore the intersections of technology, entrepreneurship, and the quest for a more informed electoral process.
Whether you’re interested in gaming, electric vehicles, or election reform, this episode offers something for you.
The Must Read Alaska Show, Alaska’s No. 1 podcast, is found at any podcasting platform that you may use, or check it out here at Podbean.
WOW HUH ALL soros must of bought must read it has gone totally fake, must cover it up now is the format all fake news in Alaska & we the people who vote do not have a chance never surrender never back down VOTE ALL BRONSON WON RANK CHOICE
Keep the open primary
Disagree 100… no 1,000%.
There is no reason, none whatsoever for a card carrying Republican to have any say in who the Democrat party wants to represent them on the general election ballot. And the opposite is true as well.
.
Lock down the primaries. If you are not a registered member of the party, you have ceded your right to any say in who the party selects for the general election.
Yes. Why should taxpayers fund private elections that only party members can participate in? Something like half of voters are independents. Closed primaries disenfranchise them. If parties want to organize their own elections to back someone for a public, open primary, have at it but not on the public dime.
Yeah, basically no different then Rank choice.. just another form. Trying to disguise rank choice.. In this you’re counting stars instead of 1;2;3 just a BIG FARCE.. AGAIN..
Alaskans are so grateful to Mark Frohnmayer for workiing hard to improve even the stellar purity of Alaska’s election system, transforming it into a simple arcade game, sucking in dozens more simple voter-players who’ve no idea how the game -will- work, but blindly trust their parent-government to make it work.
.
The same Mark of Eugene “Register Guard” fame?
.
“Mark Frohnmayer, founder of the Eugene-based three-wheeler electric vehicle company Arcimoto, is no longer its CEO. The change in leadership follows a July citation for driving under the influence.”
.
(‘https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/2022/08/12/mark-frohnmayer-out-as-ceo-of-arcimoto-electric-vehicle-three-wheel-fun-utlity-vehicle/65401814007/)
.
From the DHC (Department of Hardened Cynics): would it be rude to ask whether Mark’s pivotal role in founding the electric vehicle company, Arcimoto would have gotten this far without taxpayer subsidies?
.
Alaskans are so humbled at Mark’s pivotal role in founding the electric vehicle company, Arcimoto.
.
oops!
.
“The Eugene vehicle manufacturer Arcimoto appears to have suspended some of its services.
Arcimoto sells electric, light-weight vehicles with three wheels. However, the company has faced financial difficulties in recent years.
This month, it was delisted from the NASDAQ, and MarketWatch reports that its stock performance is down around 88% from a year ago. The company’s also been ordered to pay $1 million in a recent lawsuit, according to Oregon Business.
As of Wednesday, the company’s website was down, and its main phone line appeared to be disconnected.”
.
(‘https://www.opb.org/article/2024/05/23/arcimoto-eugene-oregon-operations/)
.
Yet the real Mark’s totally all about fixing (?) Alaska’s easily corruptible election system… “pioneering” that last step, TARFU to FUBAR, frying pan to fire, no?
Both STAR and RCV are solutions desperately seeking a problem.
This site has been morphing into something significantly different from what it had been under prior ownership. Now it’s becoming a platform for any advertiser’s drivel with articles titled in such a way as to insight a predictable response that doesn’t benefit the readership. Advertisers like Dolitsky and the tripe Sarber barks about. That the leading graphic for this story might have the term “NEWS” splashed across it is duplicitous at best. This is not news at all and Frohnmeyer is another self important knob looking for attention and hoping to make yet another strata of the lower performing electorate see him as a wunderkind.
He’s not.
Anyone promoting a system beyond one man one vote has an agenda they’re not openly sharing and they’re hoping you’re too stupid to uncover their fraudulence. This guy Frohnmeyer is of that ilk.
Being from Oregon I can say that clearly we are totally controlled by one party (democrat) and that party will do everything they possibly can to keep it that way and things like vote by mail, rank choice and star voting do nothing but help in this party staying in power. Why not keep voting simple and vote for the candidate that best fits your values. Maybe it’s not too late for Alaska to remove all out of state campaign funding and put all politicians on term limits. We in Oregon now have 13+ counties that have voted to succeed from Oregon to become part of greater Idaho because the one party rule doesn’t have or care about their values or way of life but rather party power.
So this goof’s greatest claim to fame is the establishment of an Oregon-based operation riding a greenie hype wave which looks much like a sketchy pump-and-dump scheme which is now smoldering in ruins and he’s subsequently reinvented himself as some kind of ranked choice voting guru who’s trying to convince conservative Alaskans that a slightly modified version of the toxic system which cursed us with Mary Peltola will save us from something or another.
Huh.
I thought that a group of citizens had gotten enough signatures together to have rank choice voting to appear on the ballot. Does anyone know whatever happened to that?
Each state is required by federal law to conduct elections that can be manually audited, that means a paper record, verifiable certifications by state officials, and simple verifiable calculations for the entire election. RCV and other options rely on magical tabulation that obscure the calculation beyond the first choice – rendering these methods unauditable.
My problem with a primary election is there’s no “none of the above” choice especially if political party certification is optional. Picking representatives should not be equated to the lunch menu if all options are crap.
If STAR voting had been in place during the last Alaska election a Republican would have won. You could have given stars in the way that you felt was correct. After the stars were counted (which can be done by a person) the 2 people that had the most stars – in this case it would probably have been a Republican and a Democrat though maybe both Republicans – would be left. Then your full vote would have gone to whichever person you gave the most stars to (which can also be counted by a person.) It’s simple. Verifiable. Easy to tabulate. Admissible in all 50 states.