Preferential voting

Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems:

Ranked voting election systems, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of preference, where only one preference is used at the end for each ballot (American literature)
- Instant-runoff voting, referred to as "preferential voting" in United Kingdom and Canada, contingent voting/supplementary voting.
- single transferable vote, referred to as "preferential voting" in Australia by way of conflation
  - (IRV, STV systems may use Optional preferential voting, full-preferential voting, or semi-optional voting.)
Ranked voting election systems, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of preference, where more than one preference may be used at the end for each ballot (American literature)
- Bucklin voting, similarly conflated during the Progressive Era (Bucklin systems may use Optional preferential voting, full-preferential voting, or semi-optional voting.)
Open list representation, where "preference votes" are used to express preference for individual candidates as well as for party lists.
Any electoral system that allows voters to indicate multiple preferences and uses any system other than plurality or anti-plurality to determine winners, such as STV, IRV, Score voting, and STAR voting.

See also