preferential voting

Any electoral formula which requires voters to rank candidates on a ballot paper by numbering them in the order of the voter’s preference, is a preferential voting system.  The alternative vote and the single transferable vote system of proportional representation requires voters to number their ballots under a system of preferential voting.

British Columbia used preferential voting with the alternative vote for the 1952 and 1953 general elections in the Province, and the Citizens' Assembly has adopted preferential voting as a component of the BC-STV electoral system recommended for the province.