Preferential Voting
Preferential voting — known internationally as instant-runoff voting (IRV) or ranked-choice voting — is a single-winner ranked voting system. Voters number candidates in order of preference; if no candidate has a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their ballots redistributed to voters' next preferences, repeating until one candidate holds a majority. It is used to elect Australia's House of Representatives, and its variants (single transferable vote) elect the Senate and several state upper houses. For the full mechanics, criticisms (e.g. the "centre squeeze" effect), and international usage, see Wikipedia's Instant-runoff voting article.
Further reading
- Instant-runoff voting — Wikipedia
- Antony Green — Australia's leading election analyst and psephologist, ABC's chief election analyst from 1989 to 2025; his site covers how preferential voting plays out in practice across Australian elections, including seat counts, redistributions, and results analysis.