Editing Social welfare function (section)

=== Example ===
Consider an [[Instant-runoff voting|instant-runoff]] election between Top, Center, and Bottom. Top has the most first-preference votes; Bottom has the second-most; and Center (positioned [[Political spectrum|between the two]]) has the fewest first preferences. 
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!
!Round 1
!Round 2
|-
!Top
|40
|'''53'''
|-
!Center
|<s>26</s>
|''Eliminated''
|-
!Bottom
|34
|47
|}
Under instant-runoff voting, Top is the winner. Center is eliminated in the first round, and their second-preferences are evenly split between Top and Bottom, allowing Top to win.

To find the second-place finisher, we find the winner if Top had not run. In this case, the election is between Center and Bottom.
{| class="wikitable"
!Runner-up
!Round 1
|-
!—
|''Excluded''
|-
!Center
|'''66'''
|-
!Bottom
|34
|}
(Note that the finishing order is not the same as the elimination order for [[Sequential elimination method|sequential elimination methods]]: despite being eliminated first, Center is the runner-up in this election.)