One of these methods, already used by a variety of professional organizations to elect officers, as well as by the United Nations to elect the secretary general, uses an “approval” ballot by which voters rank all the candidates of whom they approve rather than selecting just one. Far from new, this idea was suggested in 1770 by French mathematician and astronomer Jean-Charles de Borda, who expressed concern that several similar candidates would split the majority vote and allow a non-consensus candidate to win.
Voila.
Through election by order of merit, now known as the “Borda count,” each candidate was awarded a number of votes equal to the number of candidates below him on each voter’s ballot. The candidate with the most votes won.
Fast-forward a couple of centuries to 1977, when New York University politics professor Steven J. Brams and decision theorist Peter C. Fishburn devised “approval voting,” which is similar but even simpler. By their method, voters would cast a vote for each candidate of whom they approve, in no particular order. The candidate with the most votes would win.
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