With proportional systems, there are varying degrees of electing legislative bodies which reflect the wishes of the voting electorate. In addition, Americans can begin to become familiar with alternative voting systems to the one employed almost exclusively in the United States, which is the one who gets the most votes wins it all. Most United States elections are held under plurality voting rules in which voters have one vote in a race to elect one person, and the candidate with most votes wins. If more than two people run in the race, then the winner can have less than a majority of the vote. Voters in MPV rank candidates in order of preference rather than just vote for one person.
Voters usually have the option to rank as many or few candidates as they want.
There is no reason for a voter not to rank additional candidates, as a lower choice will never help defeat a higher choice. Ballots of voters who ranked that candidate first then are redistributed to the next choice candidates on those ballots. It is used to elect the parliament in Australia and was used to elect Ireland's president Mary Robinson in 1990. However, with MPV, supporters of Austin Currie were able to have their votes still have a chance to count. As an overwhelming percentage of Currie's voters supported Robinson as their second choice, she was elected.