History Main / LandslideElection

* An episode of
''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' has Rocko running against Ed Bighead for dogcatcher. Ed bolsters his image with comically large shoulders and launches [[AttackOfThePoliticalAd a giant smear campaign against Rocko]], blaming him for everything from the fall of Rome to the sinking of the Titanic. Ed ends up getting 256,724 votes while Rocko gets only two -- Rocko himself and Filburt -- Heffer breaks down and admits ''even he'' couldn't vote against Ed after his campaign. Fortunately, LaserGuidedKarma comes back to bite Ed in the butt when an amendment was passed that resulted in him [[PyrrhicVictory being reduced to a glorified pooper scooper]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' Quentin Trembley, the 8th & 1/2 President of the United States, won by a landslide -- as in [[LiteralMetaphor all the other candidates were literally buried by a landslide]].

** In [[Recap/GravityFallsS2E14TheStanchurianCandidate "The Stanchurian Candidate"]] the town overwhelmingly votes for Grunkle Stan for mayor by burying him in birdseed [[ItMakesSenseInContext (like everything else in Gravity Falls, its election processes are extremely weird)]]. [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory And then the election is invalidated because Stan never submitted the proper paperwork;]] in fact, only one person did, making [[RecurringExtra Tyler Cutebiker]] the new mayor [[WinnerByDefault by default]].]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' has Rocko running against Ed Bighead for dogcatcher. Ed bolsters his image with comically large shoulders and launches [[AttackOfThePoliticalAd a giant smear campaign against Rocko]], blaming him for everything from the fall of Rome to the sinking of the Titanic. Ed ends up getting 256,724 votes while Rocko gets only two -- Rocko himself and Filburt -- Heffer breaks down and admits ''even he'' couldn't vote against Ed after his campaign. Fortunately, LaserGuidedKarma comes back to bite Ed in the butt when an amendment was passed that resulted in him [[PyrrhicVictory being reduced to a glorified pooper scooper]].

* When we first meet Haruka in ''Anime/MyHime'', she's the student council's disciplinary executive which appears to be a means by which she can foist her own ideas about "morals" and "values" onto the rest of the student body. Neither the Student Council President or Vice President (Shizuru and Reito) seemed inclined to stop her. As an omake and subsequent episodes show [[spoiler: Haruka originally ran against Shizuru for Student Council President, largely on the same platform that she's enforcing now. She lost by a landslide (817 votes for Shizuru vs. 12 votes for her) since the average student isn't particularly interested in a MoralGuardian hovering over them. Shizuru keeps Haruka around to do the unpleasant tasks for the Student Council so she can keep her hands clean. An early hint that Shizuru is not quite all sweetness and light.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' has a landslide election in the Smiler vs. Beast election, with 48 of the 50 states going to [[spoiler:the Smiler]].
* In ''ComicBook/{{PS238}}'' the class president election between American Eagle and US Patriot Act ends in a landslide election for... Tyler Marlocke, who wasn't even on the ballot. Everyone else in the class voted for him as a write-in candidate because they couldn't stand either of the official candidates.
* In ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'' comic book story "King Smurf", the nameless Smurf wins the election by an overwhelming majority, with his opponent Brainy Smurf only getting two votes to prove how unpopular he was with his constant nagging and moralizing.

* In ''Fanfic/BruceHasAProblem'', there is a five-way race for Mayor of Gotham City, between Commissioner Gordon, current DA Garcetti, a slimy stooge for Gotham's mafia, Quincy Sharpe, a lunatic advocating for a draconian police state, the incumbent Mayor Garcia, who's been widely criticized for running on inertia since several decades before, and ''Two-Face'', a reformed supervillain who can't even vote. The mayoral debate is such an entertaining disaster that Garcetti, Sharpe and Garcia are all indelibly discredited, allowing Gordon an easy win. And even then, Two-Face's so popular even after dropping he still receives a considerable amount of votes.

* When King Cyprian of Venturia announces that he's going to secede from Atlantis in ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'', it causes a crisis, with King Orin of Atlantis alleging that he's not the rightful king and has no authority to do it. The protagonist persuades both parties that it would be worth putting it to a referendum (because even if it's not binding, King Orin is likely to respect the will of the people), and secession gets approximately ''98%'' of the vote.
* ''Fanfic/AMoonAndWorldApart'': The Directors of the Lunar Republic are elected, with candidates having to be confirmed as qualified for the position to be allowed to run. ''Nopony'' has ever tried to run against Luna for the Head Director/Director of State position, and as she explains to her sister in chapter 28, this means that even when she does the minimum amount of work for her campaign or outright doesn't try to run at all, she always wins in a landslide or gets the job back by default.
* In ''Fanfic/HuntersOfJustice'', Henry Brown became the mayor of Metropolis by a landslide thanks primarily to the fact that [[spoiler:he's a time displaced Tyrannosaurs rex [[UpliftedAnimal gifted with sapience]] [[RuleOfCool running for office]]. Most of the other politicians were too afraid to run against him for fear of being eaten]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/IMarriedAWitch'', Wallace Wooley, who has married Jennifer the witch (he thinks she's joking), is a candidate for governor. Jennifer uses her magic to make ''every voter in the state'' vote for him. A horrified Wally realizes that Jennifer really is a witch.
-->'''Wally:''' What if she runs me for President?

* At the end of ''Storm of Swords'', the third book of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the Night's Watch needs to vote for a new Lord Commander. They've spent nine days with about nine or so candidates and none even coming close to the necessary two-thirds of the votes. King Stannis demanded on the tenth day that the Night's Watch ''would'' choose a commander, or they wouldn't eat. Earlier that day, Sam convinced the two leading candidates to support [[spoiler: Jon Snow]], and his friend Edd offered [[spoiler: Jon]]'s name for consideration that night. On the tenth night of the voting, a ''very'' surprised [[spoiler: Jon Snow]] wins. By a ''lot''.
* In the Literature/NewJediOrder novel ''Destiny's Way'', one of the B-plots involves the New Republic Senate trying to pull itself together after the loss of its capital, Coruscant. The first major step is replacing the Chief of State, who was killed in the attack. The initial voting comes out with four candidates of note: Cal Omas ([[ReasonableAuthorityFigure good]]), Fyor Rodan ([[EvilChancellor bad]]), Ta'laam Ranth ([[SleazyPolitician pragmatic]]), and Pwoe ([[LesCollaborateurs really bad]]; he's noteworthy mostly for having previously declared himself Chief of State, calling the election illegal, and ''[[EpicFail receiving three votes in total]]''). The three main candidates are pretty much even through the first portion of the book, with Ranth quickly falling back and planning to cut a deal with whoever pulls ahead to make a coalition government. Then the [[LoveableRogue Smuggler's Alliance]] steps in and strategically undercuts Rodan's support, mostly by revealing proof of his supporters' corruption and abuses of power, or blackmailing those supporters with the same. Once Omas jumps ahead of the other two, various individual Senators begin breaking ranks and coming over, hoping for favors once he's in the top seat, and Ranth withdraws in his favor -- leading Omas to win by ''85%'' of the vote.

* In ''[[Literature/TrailOfGlory 1828: The Arkansas War]]'' it's mentioned that no-one ever runs against the Arkansas Confederacy's founder Patrrick Driscol in the elections for the chieftaincy of the Arkansas chiefdom. This bothers Driscol to no end, since he is a fervent democrat and republican who hates everything that smacks of autocracy and at one point he punches out a man who jokingly refers to him as "The Laird of Arkansas".
* ''Literature/TheRuinsOfAnAmericanPartySystem'': In 1932, Floyd Olsen becomes the first Progressive elected as President when he wins 39 out of 48 states, with the remainder being split among the various other candidates. And even this gets outmatched in 1936, when Olson's Vice-President Fiorello [=LaGuardia=] wins all but four states.
* Harry Turtledove ''Literature/Timeline191'' series (in which the Confederacy won the Civil War) has at least two examples of this. The Socialist party came to power in the US in 1920, but after getting the blame for the Great Depression, get curbstomped by the Democratic candidate in 1932. Similarly, in the Confederacy, the Freedom Party (a stand-in for the Nazi Party, which never existed in this universe) combine people's frustration with the Whigs, their own Depression issues, a healthy dose of racism, and some violence to overwhelmingly win in 1933.
* Happens in one of the ''Literature/DonCamillo'' short stories, when Peppone has to face re-election as mayor. It's in fact expected for him to lose this way, as the opposing candidate from the Christian Democracy party is supported by a massive propaganda effort, while Peppone doesn't have the same support from the regional section of the Communist party. Then, on the eve of the election, Peppone asks the citizens of his small town to vote according on how well they think he did his job. He apparently did such a good job that even don Camillo, the ''town priest'', votes for him, allowing him to win by a great margin.

* The [[AntiHumanAlliance Antibat Party]] in Creator/{{Kurd Lasswitz}}'s ''Auf zwei Planeten'' is resoundingly defeated in the Martian parliamentary election at the climax. This is definitely a case of "one candidate self-sabotages" since party leader Oß [[AHeroToHisHometown (who was quite popular beforehand)]] announced his plans of ''[[KillAllHumans genocide]]''.
* Exaggerated in the ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book ''The Frandidate'', where Franny's Frandidate suit makes everyone in school find her so appealing that they don't even bother with an election and inaugurate Franny as class president on the spot.

* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': Eugene Ellis becomes school president in a landslide, all because he promises the students better toilet paper in the bathrooms.

* The 2002 presidential election on ''Series/TheWestWing'' was originally predicted to be close, but instead turned into a landslide after President Bartlet ''[[CurbStompBattle eviscerated]]'' Governor Richie in the debate. Bartlet won 38 states, including states Democrats could never hope to win (the Dakotas, Louisiana, Kentucky, etc.)
* The "Election Night Special" sketch on ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' featured a possible example; Silly candidate "Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel" defeated Sensible Candidate Alan Jones, 58% to 42% -- quite a big swing considering that the Sensible Party previously held the seat. Both men thoroughly crushed the "Slightly Silly" independent, Kevin Phillips-Bong, who received ''zero'' votes.
* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} the Third'' featured a by-election in "Dunny-on-the-Wold", a rotten borough (a real thing: a constituency in which, due to lack of any regular redistricting process and restrictive voter requirements, the number of constituents or actual voters was very low. This case was an extreme example with only one registered voter for the entire town [[note]]This is not far from TruthInTelevision; in the 19th century, two MPs were elected from Old Sarum by a total of 11 voters.[[/note]]) Baldrick was elected [[VoteEarlyVoteOften by 16,472 votes, with zero votes cast in opposition]]. Not surprisingly, the election was fixed: Blackadder took the place of the only eligible voter (who [[CutHimselfShaving "accidentally brutally cut his head off while combing his hair"]]) ''and'' the returning officer (who [[CutHimselfShaving "accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving"]]).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Mr. Lindermann uses Micah's technopathic ability to manipulate the electronic voting machines and fix Nathan Petrelli's election to Congress into a landslide victory.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Implied to be the case in the special election for Bajoran first minister in the third season. Kira notes that Shakaar is effectively running unopposed, with only niche, regional candidates running against him.
* The election of David Palmer between Seasons 1 and 2 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' saw him win with 60% of the popular vote for reasons similar to those for the similarly decisive victory of UsefulNotes/BarackObama in the real 2008 election: an excellent campaign together with an uninspired opponent.
** Though the exact results aren't revealed, Allison Taylor is said to have scored a similarly decisive victory prior to Season 7, due to a combination of being the first female nominee for president, and incumbent president Noah Daniels deliberately running a poor campaign due to his disillusionment with the office.
* Seemingly played in one episode of the short-lived sitcom ''Down Home''. Protagonist Kate runs against her ex-boyfriend in a mayoral election. After particularly revolting mud slinging from both sides, the election occurs and the previous mayor comes to Kate to inform her she's won the election two-to-one.

* In one episode of ''Series/MyFamily'', Susan runs for the local council elections as an independent candidate. HilarityEnsues as it turns out that the issues she's campaigning for are the ''exact opposite'' of what the local electorate want (for example, she pledges to install more speed bumps, but the first voter she talks to excitedly asks whether she's going to remove all the speed bumps). On election day, when her opponent is declared the winner, Susan indignantly demands a recount, so the adjudicator recounts her ballots right there and then... all ''one'' of them. Even her own family members didn't vote for her!
* The ''Series/{{Skins}}'' election for student president; Naomi is the intelligent, politically inclined, idealistic, injustice-hating candidate who thinks she might be able to use the position to make a difference -- up against Cook, whose slogan is "vote for me -- I don't give a fuck either", and UpperClassTwit Crispin. Since all the students know that the election is largely a show for something that'll look good on the school's OFSTED report, they buy into Cook's anarchic philosophies instead. The teachers attempt to rig the result by stuffing the ballots for Cook into Harriet's bra, and declaring Naomi the winner. Naomi overheard their whole plan though, and since this is injustice-hating Naomi we're talking about she pulls out all the votes in front of everybody and gracefully concedes defeat. Then Cook promptly starts a riot.

* In the ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' episode "Wild Justice" the leadership election for the head of an Oxford college initially has four candidates: Caroline Hope, a modernist reformer; Joanne Pinnock, a more moderate reformer; Jeremy Swain, a moderate; and Stephen Blackmore, a traditionalist who is shown to have bigoted views. It's initially predicted to be a close race, but after Swain is murdered and Pinnock is forced to withdraw after the death of her son, all of their support goes to Hope, who easily crushes Blackmore in the ensuing vote. It's also indicated that Blackmore would likely have gotten his backside kicked even harder if not for the college's outgoing head covering up a scandal involving his illegally selling alcohol to students.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': In season four [[LivingShip Moya]] and Pilot get tired of the conflicting orders being given by the rest of the cast and insist they elect a captain. Of the eight current occupants ([[EnemyMine Scorpius]] being a prisoner who doesn't get to vote), four of them vote for D'Argo. The editing makes it clear D'Argo voted for himself along with Crichton, Aeryn and Chiana. The other four all voted for different people, meaning none of their choices had a chance.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' has Rocko running against Ed Bighead for dogcatcher. Ed bolsters his image with comically large shoulders and launches [[AttackOfThePoliticalAd a giant smear campaign against Rocko]], blaming him for everything from the fall of Rome to the sinking of the Titanic. Ed ends up getting 256,724 votes while Rocko gets only two -- Rocko himself and Filburt -- Heffer breaks down and admits ''even he'' couldn't vote against Ed after his campaign. Fortunately, LaserGuidedKarma comes back to bite Ed in the butt when an amendment was passed that resulted in him [[PyrrhicVictory being reduced to a glorified pooper scooper]].
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BlinkyBill'' featured an election for club president that Danny Dingo won by 47 votes to 2, even though there were only six club members.
* In one ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'' episode, Timmy runs for Class President against popular kids Tad and Chad, who bribe everyone to vote for them with (among other things) cake. When Timmy shows up on the day of the vote, he finds that their cakes made everyone else sick and he's the only one eligible to vote. He therefore wins after casting the only vote for himself.
* On the ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' episode "Cobra's Candidate," a mayoral candidate just discovered by his constituents to be working with [[NebulousEvilOrganization Cobra]] loses by a margin of ''2 to 2.1 million'', with his only two votes suggested to have come from his wife and mother. They turn out be from [[SingleMindedTwins Tomax and Xamot]], who promptly rip up their election stubs out of frustration.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' episode "Princess Toadstool for President", Princess Toadstool wins an election over King Koopa with over 6 million votes. Koopa's lone vote was his own, meaning [[EvenEvilHasStandards not even his children or his minions voted for him!]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' Quentin Trembley, the 8th & 1/2 President of the United States, won by a landslide -- as in [[LiteralMetaphor all the other candidates were literally buried by a landslide]].
* A similar joke was used in a ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' short, where Bullwinkle is running for club president. He's the first on the clubhouse on voting day when Boris calls to tell him he won by a landslide... because a landslide has buried the clubhouse, making Bullwinkle the only one able to vote. Too bad he voted for Rocky.
* Two examples in ''WesternAnimation/BeverlyHillsTeens'':
** "The Dog Ate My Homework": Larke wins the title of the Midnight Ball Princess 82 votes against one. Bianca realizes not even Wilshire voted for her.
** In "Poll Climbers", Shanelle wins with 95% of the votes once Bianca's scheming is revealed.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the season 5 episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E19CrusadersOfTheLostMark Crusaders of the Lost Mark]]", Pipsqueak runs for class president against Diamond Tiara. Diamond's campaign is based on getting a huge statue of herself at the school; she resorts to blackmail and bribery to try to get votes. Pipsqueak's goal is to get new playground equipment to replace what was damaged or destroyed during Twilight's fight with Tirek in the season 4 finale, and runs a fair campaign (with the help of the Crusaders), which leads to him getting every vote but Diamond Tiara's (she votes for herself, naturally). Even ''[[BetaBitch Silver Spoon]]'' doesn't vote for her.
* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' were once given an assignment for History class in which they were required to run for class president. The school only gives them one vote (can you blame them?), but they briefly misinterpret the report to mean they lost by one vote.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E63SonicIsRunning Sonic is Running]]", Momma Robotnik forces Dr. Robotnik to run for president of Mobius, and Sonic runs against him. The episode ends with Sonic winning the election with 90,000,000 votes, while Robotnik only gets one vote (his own). Not even Scratch, Grounder, or Momma voted for him, since the former forgot to vote at all and the latter was so disgusted by her son's campaign that she actually voted for Sonic or Henry Walrus.
* The ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' episode "For the Ed, By the Ed" had Eddy going against Plank (a literal board of wood) for the title King of the Cul-de-sac. Plank wins the election easily: out of eight votes, only Eddy voted for himself, Rolf [[TakeAThirdOption wrote himself in]], Ed voted for a half-eaten cookie, and the majority of five votes voted for Plank because no one likes Eddy. Even Double D couldn't bring himself to vote for Eddy after the way he acted. (And sure enough, Eddy had also tried stuffing the ballot, but Double D anticipated this and put out a decoy box.)
-->'''Ed:''' Yeah! Way to lose, Eddy!

* Exaggerated in ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'' story "El candidato". The Superintendent decides to run for president of Spain, and the result is a spectacular failure: his rival, Marcelino Cascajo, is elected with 38 million votes, while the Superintendent only gets one vote -- his own.

* Harry Turtledove ''Literature/Timeline191'' series (where the Confederacy won the Civil War) has at least two examples of this. The Socialist party came to power in the US in 1920, but after getting the blame for the Great Depression get curbstomped by the Democratic candidate in 1932. Similarly in the Confederacy, the Freedom Party (stand-in for the Nazi party which never existed in this universe) combine people's frustration with the Whigs, their own Depression issues, a healthy dose of racism, and some violence to overwhelmingly win in 1933.
* Happens in one of the ''Literature/DonCamillo'' short stories, when Peppone has to face re-election as mayor. It's in fact expected for him to lose this way, as the opposing candidate from the Christian Democracy party is supported by a massive propaganda effort while Peppone doesn't have the same support from the regional section of the Communist party... Then, on the eve of the election, Peppone asks the citizens of his small town to vote according on how well they think he did his job... And he apparently did such a good job that even don Camillo, the ''town priest'', votes for him, allowing him to win with a massive advantage.

** After the people of the newly liberated system of San Martin learn that the last commander of their pre-occupation Navy was among the people Honor liberated from Hades, Commodore Ramirez pretty much gets drafted into running for President. At which point all but one of the original candidates promptly withdraw. The one candidate to stay in the election did so to keep Ramirez from running unopposed as a matter of principle, and conceded the election after receiving less than 10% of the vote.

** The 1984 US presidential election has incumbent president Jeremiah Denton (R-AL) grab 518 electoral college votes compared to Mike Gravel (D-MA)'s 19, with 1 faithless elector.
** Thanks to the after-effects of [[spoiler:Lee Iaccoca's assassination]], [[spoiler:Larry Dinger (R-IA)]] overwhelmingly wins the White House and sweeps John Glenn (D-OH) with almost all states voting Republican.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} the Third'' featured a by-election in the rotten borough (A district where, due to irregular redistricting and highly restrictive voter registration requirements, the number of actual voters disproportionately small compared to the actual population of the area. In this case, it was an extreme example with only one registered voter for the entire town) of "Dunny-on-the-Wold"; Baldrick was elected by 16,472 votes, with zero votes cast in opposition. Not surprisingly, the election was fixed; Blackadder took the place of the only eligible voter (who [[CutHimselfShaving "accidentally brutally cut his head off while combing his hair"]]) ''and'' the returning officer (who [[CutHimselfShaving "accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving"]]).
* Mr. Lindermann in the first season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' uses Micah's technopathic ability to manipulate the electronic voting machines and fix Nathan Petrelli's election to Congress into a landslide victory.
* In British drama series ''Series/TheAmazingMrsPritchard'' about an 'ordinary' woman with no political experience who starts a new political party the titular character ends up winning the General Election with 54% of the vote seats and 378 seats with the Conservatives and Labour reduced to less than 270 seats between them.

* The election of David Palmer in-between Seasons 1 and 2 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' saw him with with a 60% share of the popular vote for very much the same reasons that UsefulNotes/BarackObama would later win the 2008 election in real-life, namely an excellent campaign together with an uninspired opponent.

* The ''Series/{{Skins}}'' election for student president; Naomi is the intelligent, politically inclined, idealistic, injustice hating candidate who thinks she might be able to use the position to make a difference -- up against Cook, whose slogan is "vote for me -- I don't give a fuck either", and UpperClassTwit Crispin. Since all the students know that the election is largely a show for something that'll look good on the school's OFSTED report, they buy into Cook's anarchic philosophies instead. The teachers attempt to rig the result by stuffing the ballots for Cook into Harriet's bra, and declaring Naomi the winner. Naomi overheard their whole plan though, and since this is injustice hating Naomi we're talking about she pulls out all the votes in front of everybody and gracefully concedes defeat. And Cook promptly starts a riot.

* One episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' had a three-way race for class president between Kimberly, Tommy and Bulk. Tommy bowed out to support Kimberly, while Bulk's weak campaign was while he was on that "find out the Power Ranger's identities" kick. Kimberly won, with Bulk only getting one vote as his best friend Skull voted for her instead of him.
* In the ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' episode "Wild Justice" the leadership election for the head of an Oxford college initially has four candidates; Caroline Hope, a modernist reformer, Joanne Pinnock, a more moderate reformer, Jeremy Swain, a moderate, and Stephen Blackmore, a traditionalist who is shown to have bigoted views. It's initially predicted to be a close race, but after Swain is murdered and Pinnock is forced to withdraw after the death of her son, all of their support goes to Hope, who easily crushes Blackmore in the ensuing vote. It's also indicated that Blackmore would likely have gotten his backside kicked even harder if not for the college's outgoing head covering up a scandal involving his illegally selling alcohol to students.

** The main opposition party disintegrates due to internal dissension and a general lack of organization and purpose. One party will win all the major elections until a viable replacement for the opposition can be found.