The phrase "a first preference of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing someone's top choice or priority among options.
Example: "Her first preference of the available job offers was the one that provided the best work-life balance."
Alternatives: "top choice of" or "primary preference for".
The ordinary voters Bagehot encountered this week on the campaign trail wanted to talk about something more down to earth: the public's experience of democracy, and whether AV might possibly improve it.In west Dorset, an AV supporter, Rikey Austin, talked of yearning to cast a first preference for the Greens after years of tactically voting Lib Dem.
This is of course an extreme example that implies that ultimately there are only two choices: Corybn and anyone-but-Corybn, and that everyone that doesn't give a first preference to Corbyn votes for one of the two main challengers, and gives a second preference to the other, in order to defeat the frontrunner.
Seven responders expressed a first preference for the first treatment to be administered on day 8 of the ART cycle (around the time of scan and bloods), five expressed a second preference for day 3 (start of stimulation), and seven expressed a third preference for day 12 (trigger injection).
What weight should be given to the views of a politician from Tasmania who gets a first preference vote of about 26% of a very small electorate of 360,000 people?
Only 77 people actually voted for Roberts as a first preference but, thanks to the popularity of Hanson, he's in for three years.
Labour's position, firmed up at the party conference in September, is to push for a general election as a first preference, but to maintain the possibility of a second referendum if this does not happen.
Under AV everyone gets the same ballot, but fringe-party supporters can cast, cost-free, a first preference protest vote, confident that their second preference has a good chance of affecting the result.
He said he would vote for the PM's deal but he did not believe there was "a majority in favour of the first preference" of any MP, and it was time to "seek compromise".
Nearly 88% of families received their first preference of primary school, a slight rise on 2014 that reflected the efforts to provide more places.
The first preference of the Church was to have women enter one of the monastic orders.
