This paper describes a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach to the design of robust low-order power system stabilizers (PSSs), which are used to damp out local-mode oscillations of synchronous generators. The performance of a PSS is expressed as the location of the closed-loop poles, and a single fixed-gain pole-placement controller is synthesized for a wide range of operating conditions. The synthesis results in simultaneous regional pole-placement stabilization through static output feedback, and is formulated as a novel LMI feasibility problem with a rank condition. A penalty method is applied to solve the rank-constrained LMI problem. Numerical experiments with a single machine connected to an infinite bus system were performed to demonstrate the proposed LMI method, and the results were compared with those of previous work.