Talk:Preference voting

When people were comparing regular 'runoff' and 'instant runoff', it made sense to call preference voting 'instant runoff'. But now that more people compare approval and preference voting, it makes sense to call preference voting just that. Or you could make the point that when compared to regular runoff it's usually called instant runoff to distinguish it, and when compared to approval it's usually called preference to distinguish it. That doesn't take much space and it doesn't create a system of categorization, which I agree we can avoid.

Or, we could call it "alternate vote". Does that have any secondary meaning? DanKeshet

Seems not. Yes, that name avoids the runoff vs. preference issue, and lets those names be explained properly in comparison to the other types of vote that alternative vote is compared to. Also, that satisfies the requirement of not using overly general names when a more specific one works just as well... and is less overloaded.

Clearly there are other balloting systems where preferences are expressed, e.g. cumulative voting, and also others where the ballot requires some work to interpret but is nonetheless 'instant' in the sense of a single ballot, e.g. single transfer vote[?]. So confusion is inevitable if 'preference' or 'instant runoff' are the distinctions. 'Alternative vote' seems safe to me. - 142