Borda Count - History

History

A form of the Borda count was one of the voting methods employed in the Roman Senate beginning around the year 105. However, in its modern, mathematical form, the system is thought have been discovered independently by at least three men:

  • Ramon Llull (1232–1315), who with the 2001 discovery of his lost manuscripts Ars notandi, Ars eleccionis, and Alia ars eleccionis, was given credit for discovering the Borda count and Condorcet criterion (Llull winner) in the 13th century
  • Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), who in 1433 unsuccessfully suggested the method as a way of electing the Holy Roman Emperor
  • Jean-Charles de Borda, who devised the system in June 1770, invented his system as a fair way to elect members to the French Academy of Sciences, and first published his method in 1781 as Mémoire sur les élections au scrutin in the Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris. The method was used by the Academy from 1784 until being quashed by Napoleon in 1800.

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