Voting is a method for a group such as a meeting or an electorate to make a decision or express an opinion—often following discussions, debates or election campaigns.

Process of voting

Representative democracies discern the will of the people by a common voting procedure:

• Individual voter registration and qualification,
• Opening the election for a set time period,
• Registration of voters at established voting locations,
• Distribution of ballots with preset candidates, issues, and choices (including the write-in option in some cases),
• Selection of preferred choices (often in secret, called a secret ballot),
• Secure collection of ballots for unbiased counting, and
• Proclamation of the will of the voters as the will of the people for their government.

Reasons for voting

In a representative democracy, voting commonly implies election: a way for an electorate to select among candidates for office. In politics voting is the method by which the electorate of a democracy appoints representatives in its government.

A vote is an individual's act of voting, by which he or she expresses support or preference for a certain motion (for example, a proposed resolution), a certain candidate, a selection of candidates, or a political party. With a secret ballot to protect voters' political privacy, voting generally takes place at a polling station. The act of voting

Types of votes

Different voting systems use different types of vote. Suppose that the options in some election are Alice, Bob, Charlie, Daniel, and Emily and they are all vying for the same position:

In a voting system that uses a single vote, the voter selects his or her most preferred candidate. "Plurality voting systems" use single votes.

A development on the single vote system is to have two-round elections, or repeat first-past-the-post. However, the winner must win by 50% plus one, called a simple majority. If subsequent votes must be used, often a candidate, the one with the fewest votes or anyone who wants to move their support to another candidate, is removed from the ballot.

In a voting system that uses a multiple vote, the voter can vote for any subset of the alternatives. So, a voter might vote for Alice, Bob, and Charlie, rejecting Daniel and Emily. Approval voting uses such multiple votes.

In a voting system that uses a ranked vote, the voter has to rank the alternatives in order of preference. For example, they might vote for Bob in first place, then Emily, then Alice, then Daniel, and finally Charlie. Preferential voting systems, such as those famously used in Australia, use a ranked vote.