An electoral method, also called instant-runoff voting or the alternative vote, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference rather than choosing only one. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that candidate's ballots are transferred to the voters' next-ranked choice, and the count repeats until one candidate holds a majority. Proposed independently by more than one writer in the 1870s, it was first adopted for a national parliament in Australia in 1918, for the House of Representatives, where it remains in use, and has since been adopted for some state and municipal elections in the United States under the name ranked-choice voting.
Facts
Origin YearFirst national adoption, for the Australian House of Representatives. The method was proposed independently by more than one writer in the 1870s, decades before any government adopted it; 1918 marks first practical use in a national parliament, not first proposal. Founding ContextRanked choice voting, also called instant runoff voting or the alternative vote depending on the country, was designed to let voters express a fuller order of preference than a single choice allows, so that if no candidate wins a majority of first preferences outright, lower ranked preferences can be redistributed to determine a winner without a separate runoff election. Australia's House of Representatives, adopting it in 1918, was the first national parliament to use the method. 1 Connections
Associated With
Both methods count preferences by transferring eliminated or surplus votes rather than holding a separate runoff election; single transferable vote extends the same ranked-ballot logic to multi-member districts to achieve proportionality, while ranked-choice voting is used in single-winner contests.
The UK held a 2011 referendum on adopting the alternative vote, which more than two-thirds of voters rejected.
Source Ranked Voting (Britannica)
Influenced
Why this is disputed. Ranked-choice voting is, like first past the post, a single-winner method, so whether it escapes Duverger's law's two-party prediction or merely delays it is genuinely disputed: some scholars find its elimination-and-transfer process weakens the psychological pressure toward two dominant candidates that plurality voting creates, others find the underlying single-winner mechanics reassert themselves once a race narrows to two credible contenders.
Practiced By
Source Instant-Runoff Voting (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Ranked Voting (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaLead definition paragraph (ranked voting, also called alternative voting or instant runoff)Quote, Lead definition paragraph (ranked voting, also called alternative voting or instant runoff)
Ranked voting is a method of election in which voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Instant-Runoff Voting (Wikipedia)
WikipediaTerminology section
Britons and New Zealanders generally call instant-runoff voting the 'alternative vote' (AV).
Practiced By: Australia, Article text
It is used to elect members of the Australian House of Representatives and the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
View the Source Ranked-choice voting (Wikipedia)
In Group: Plurality, Majority and Indirect Voting Methods, Lead paragraphQuote, In Group: Plurality, Majority and Indirect Voting Methods, Lead paragraph
Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-winner districts Single transferable vote (STV), a specific ranked voting system with multi-winner districts; often called "proportional ranked choice voting"
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