---
categories:
- Politics
- Electoral Systems
summary: Preferential voting (instant-runoff voting) is a ranked-choice system where
  voters number candidates in order of preference; if no candidate wins a majority
  of first preferences, the lowest-polling candidate is eliminated and their votes
  redistributed until one candidate has a majority. It elects Australia's House
  of Representatives.
tags:
- preferential voting
- instant-runoff voting
- ranked-choice voting
- Australia
title: 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting) article.

## Further reading

- [Instant-runoff voting — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting)
- [Antony Green](https://antonygreen.com.au/) — 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.

## See also

- [Representative Democracy](representative-democracy.md)
- [Mixed-Member Proportional Representation](mixed-member-proportional-representation.md)
- [PRSA — Proportional Representation Society of Australia](../organisations/prsa.md)
- [Electoral Royal Commission (Australia)](../organisations/electoral-royal-commission.md)
