First-past-the-post voting

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Comparison of electoral systems Social choice theory Mechanism design List (By country)
Single-winner methods Single vote-runoff methods Plurality (FPP) Two-round (US: Jungle primary) Partisan primary Alternative vote (US: Ranked-choice) Condorcet-IRV Condorcet methods Ranked pairs Schulze Minimax Kemeny–Young Nanson Condorcet-IRV Maximal lottery Positional voting First-preference plurality Borda count Anti-plurality voting Cardinal / graded methods Score voting Approval voting Majority judgment STAR voting Quadratic voting
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Mixed systems By type of representation Winner-take-most Mixed-member proportional Non-compensatory mixed systems Parallel voting Majority bonus Compensatory mixed systems Additional member system Mixed single vote Scorporo Double simultaneous vote Mixed ballot transferable vote Alternative Vote Plus Dual-member proportional Rural–urban proportional
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Social and collective choice Impossibility theorems Arrow's theorem Impossibility of majority-rule Moulin's impossibility theorem Gibbard's theorem Fishburn's theorem Positive results Median voter theorem Condorcet's jury theorem May's theorem Campbell-Kelly theorem Harsanyi's utilitarian theorem Tournament sets Smith set Landau set Copeland set Split-cycle set Bipartisan set Tournament solution
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First-preference plurality (FPP)—often shortened simply to plurality—is a single-winner system of positional voting where voters mark one candidate as their favorite, and the candidate with the largest number of points (a plurality of points) is elected. It is sometimes called first-past-the-post, based on a metaphor from horse racing.^[1]

In social choice theory, FPP is considered a degenerate form of ranked voting, where voters "rank" candidates, but only the first preference matters; as a result, FPP is usually implemented using a choose-one ballot, where voters mark a single bubble next to their favorite candidate.

FPP has been used to elect the British House of Commons since the Middle Ages. It is use extends to former British colonies, most notably the United States, Canada, and India. It is used as the primary form of allocating seats for legislative elections in about a third of the world's countries, mostly in the English-speaking world. It is also used to directly elect heads of states in some, although less often than the two-round system.^{[citation needed]}

Notwithstanding its simplicity and antiquity, there are several major drawbacks to FPTP. As a winner-take-all method, it often produces disproportional results, particularly when electing members of a legislature, in the sense that political parties do not get representation according to their share of the popular vote. This usually favors the largest party and parties with strong regional support to the detriment of smaller parties without a geographically concentrated base.

Supporters of electoral reform are generally highly critical of FPTP because of this and point out other flaws, such as FPTP's vulnerability to gerrymandering which can create districts distorting representation in the legislature, the high number of wasted votes, and the chance of a majority reversal (i.e., the party winning the most votes getting fewer seats than the second-largest party and losing the election). Throughout the 20th century many countries that previously used FPTP have abandoned it in favour of other electoral systems, including the former British colonies Australia, and New Zealand (these nations now use IRV + STV and MMP, respectively).

Some countries use FPTP alongside proportional representation (PR) in a parallel voting system, or in compensatory mixed systems, e.g. as part of mixed-member proportional representation.