The Founding Fathers
Even if Cusanus proposed Borda’s rule more than 300 years before Borda, and Lull’s description of elections are generally based on pair-wise majority voting anticipating, maybe, Condorcet, their works cannot be compared with those of Borda and Condorcet. Borda was a great applied scientist of his time and Condorcet’s contribution to human knowledge is still probably underestimated. What they left us on voting is not commensurate with what Cusanus or Lull left. A third founding father should be added because of his influence on later thinkers: Bentham, who might well be the father of the utilitarian social welfare function.