Election strategies and analysis: a scientific approach to being a winner

There is one activity of human endeavour in democratic countries in which everyone can be involved. The ability to decide who you would like to be the leaders of your organisation or even your country is considered to be one of the fundamental rights in such places. This paper looks at aspects of voting in a variety of locations and discusses the merits of the differing systems used. Looming large among any process is the issue of electoral fraud and this is covered along with an analysis of the importance of informal votes. To demonstrate how science can be used to devise an optimal strategy for candidates, an actual example of an election held at a university is given and the complete set of scenarios detailed along with their consequences. From consideration of these a strategy was devised that ultimately led to a successful outcome.