I cast Arrow's Impossibility Theorem on the ogre closest to the paladin... For a forced-choice selection between two options, First Past The Post is equivalent to instant run-off with no RON available. A system that satisfies many useful properties, (one of which is "there's code out there already <http://www.public-software-group.org/preftools>") is the Schulze method <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method> . Code is available at: http://www.public-software-group.org/preftools As the wiki page shows, this method satisfies the Condorcet criteria (if all head-to-head were to have faced off in head-to-head death-matches, and one candidate would kill all the others, that candidate would be the one standing on top of the pile of corpses in the multi-candidate battle royale ). Are you not entertained? The preftools implementation supports the use of acceptance thresholds, and allows choices to be made as to how to treat incomplete ballots (i.e. when some voters do not list every single candidate).