A star is an opinion. A ballot is a method.

Yes/no and five stars are too thin to govern with. Like a good personality profile or a SWOT analysis, a trustworthy answer is assembled from clear, distinct questions: each easy to answer honestly, each hard to game, and each able to validate the others.

1 · Fact

An observable, low-bias anchor. Answered before any opinion is asked.

"How long did the food take?" → 20 min

2 · Context

What was this actually about? Partitions the dataset.

"What did you order?" → Pizza

3 · Validator

Cross-checks and segments the facts. It partitions honestly; it does not prove truth.

"Dine-in, takeout or delivery?"

4 · Judgment

Now the stars, anchored by the facts just given.

"Rate the service" → ★★★★

5 · Assent

The binary, last, informed by everything above.

"Would you return?" → Yes

The order is the method

Fact-anchoring before judgment is standard survey science. It dampens halo bias. Validators let the tally partition itself: a 20-minute wait means something different for delivery than dine-in, and the data now knows which is which. The dependency is enforced in data, not convention: the judgment question stays locked until the facts are answered.

Stars are not discarded

They are demoted to the judgment slot, asked after the facts. "1 star, terrible service" survives; it just stops being the whole ballot.

One member, one vote, revisable

Every cast is an immutable revision row. A pointer marks the current one. History is preserved; exactly one vote is counted.

Honest about who it represents

Every tally publishes its turnout and coverage. Partitioned tallies publish only above a minimum cell size (k ≥ 5) so nobody is re-identified through a validator split. Structured like a census, never claimed to be one.

Method applied to itself

New ballots pass a leading-phrase reviewer before they open. Ballot design is powerful; it can also lead. Even the facts-first ordering is a hypothesis the platform tests on itself.

Visibility, default-safe

Aggregates: always public. Individual votes: anonymous tally by default. Public roll-call is a per-ballot opt-in declared before the first vote; petitions typically run public-roll, with a withdrawal path.

Try it on the demo that proves it

The Elgin Street Pizzeria ballot shows the validator insight: delivery orders report twice the wait of dine-in. The star average alone would have blamed the kitchen.

Open the pizzeria ballot

VoteMap runs community votes, petitions and advisory ballots. It does not run official government elections, and never claims to.