At the risk of sounding like a bad person... [...] Trying to counteract this factor, I've often voted for such people that I thought would be great and would be unknown in the wider community, and omitted voting for people I liked that I knew would make it on the board anyway (often making sure to select fewer people than the maximum I was allowed). I was hoping it would even out the number of votes a little bit, and make those who didn't get elected feel more encouraged to try again.