 In the discussion above, I have assumed that voters select ballots sincerely. That is, the voters are simply trying to communicate their opinions about the candidates under the constraints of the chosen voting method. However, in many contexts, it makes sense to  assume that voters choose strategically. One need only look to recent U.S. elections to see concrete examples of strategic voting. The most often cited example is the 2000 U.S. election: Many voters who ranked third-party candidate Ralph Nader first voted for their second choice (typically Al Gore). A detailed overview of the literature on strategic voting is beyond the scope of this article (see Taylor 2005 and   Section 3.3 of List 2013 for   discussions and pointers to the relevant literature; also see Poundstone 2008 for an entertaining and informative discussion of the occurrence of this phenomenon in many actual elections). I will explain the main issues, focusing on specific voting rules. 