Preferential voting

Preferential voting or preference voting may refer to several different types of electoral systems. Many preferential voting systems originated in, or were refined in, national and sub-national elections in Australia, where alternative voting systems continue to be widely used.

Classifications

Any electoral system that allows a voter to indicate multiple preferences where preferences marked are weighted or used as contingency votes
Ranked voting methods, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of preference
* Instant-runoff voting and single transferable vote, referred to as "preferential voting" in Australia by way of conflation
* Bucklin voting, similarly conflated during the Progressive Era
* Optional preferential voting
Open list representation, a form of party-list proportional representation where "preference votes" are used to express preference for individual candidates instead of party lists.