[EM] Definition of preferential voting

[James Gilmour]

Bart Ingles  > Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 5:32 AM
> I recall reading somewhere that the technically correct, if 
> not common, usage is to have exactly two alternatives or any 
> number of options.

I suspect this restrictive definition fell out of common use many years ago.  I don't have on-line
access to the OED so cannot check for dates.

>  If so, the name 'Alternative Vote' is 
> almost a Freudian slip.

I don't know who first coined this term or in what circumstances.  Again, the OED (or an equivalent
with dated citations) would help.  An "Alternative Vote Bill" (for IRV without restriction on number
of preferences marked) was introduced into the UK Parliament in 1930, but the term may have been in
use well before that.
James