What is "preferential voting"

Preferential voting \Preferential voting\ (Political Science) A system of voting, as at primaries, in which the voters are allowed to indicate on their ballots their preference (usually their first and second choices) between two or more candidates for an office, so that if no candidate receives a majority of first choices the one receiving the greatest number of first and second choices together in nominated or elected.

Preferential voting may refer to:

• Ranked voting systems, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of preference
  • Instant-runoff voting, referred to as "preferential voting" in Australia, is one type of ranked voting system.
• Range voting, in which voters assign points to each candidate
• Open list, sometimes known as "preferential voting" in Europe and nations such as Sri Lanka
• Bucklin voting, which was sometimes known as "preferential voting" when used in the United States