Borda count
A voting system devised by Jean-Charles de Borda, used for single or multiple-seat elections.
This form of voting is extremely popular in determining awards for
sports in the United States. It is used in determining the
Most Valuable Player in Major League Baseball, the national
championship of college football, as well as
many others.
A number n is selected, this number can be smaller than or equal to the number of candidates. Each voter lists their top n choices, in order of preference.
A first-place rank is worth n points, a second-place rank is worth n-1
points, down to an nth rank being worth 1 point. A candidate's score
is the sum of the number of points they received. The highest-scoring
candidate is elected.
In the trivial case of n=1, this is mathematically identical to plurality voting.
The potential for tactical voting is large. Voters are
encouraged to list choices they believe are popular lower than they
actually believe they deserve to be ranked, so that they don't compete
with their top-ranked choice. It also encourages voters to assess the
viability of each candidate, so as not to "waste" their vote on those
with little chance of winning.
This was much discussed in the case of the 2000 elections for Most
Valuable Player in the American League of Major League Baseball,
where there were two top candidates, and partisans for one were found
not to have included the other at all on their ballot
[1] (http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/1999/1117/177326.html).
Voting
Counting the Votes
Potential for Tactical Voting