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The traditional one-person-one-vote (1p1v) majority allows voters to reveal their preference in yes or no. It gives each individual a chance to express favor or disfavor for the public good. For example, one-person-one-vote majority voting for electing the representatives allows voters to express their consent for a particular candidate only once.

It does not allow voters to express the strength of their preference as one individual gets only one chance to express their preference in yes or no.

The quadratic voting comes into play for expressing the strength of preference. An individual can vote more than once to express their preference dominantly. The voters purchase votes according to their preference and cast their votes.

For example, the quadratic voting system for the selection of Senate bill 85 out of 107 bills in the legislative assembly of US allowed the members to cast nine votes on one bill and three votes on another bill or five votes each on four different bills.

The following are the differences between the two types of voting:

• The government decides for the winning side in majority voting, provided each voter can cast a vote only once to reveal his preference. In contrast, majority voting allows the voters to vote multiple times, showing the concentration of their votes.
• In quadratic voting, people purchase extra votes to express the strength of their preference. The cost of each vote increases with the square of the number of votes. The majority voting does not include any such facility.
• People purchase votes till the marginal benefit exceeds marginal cost. The majority voting does not take into account technicalities like marginal analyses.

The quadratic system is more technical as it considers marginal analyses for social benefit and allows the voters to express the strength of their preference, and there is less scope for inefficiencies. Therefore, you will prefer a quadratic voting system.