Election Day Episode

"Ugh, why is everyone so obsessed with voting today?"

— Mateo, Superstore, "Election Day"

An election day episode is one in which an election is the focus of the episode. In many countries around the world, people have the opportunity to influence those responsible for governing them via the ballot box. Given that this is a part of life, it thus shows up in works of fiction occasionally.

Election day episodes usually focus on one, two, or more main and/or recurring characters pursuing a bid for some elective office, though sometimes the focus can be reversed to focus on potential voters dilemma as to who they believe to be most qualified for office. Election day episodes will sometimes end in a Dark Horse Victory if the Victor is a write-in candidate or in the case of an Underdog Victory.

Expect these types of episodes to suddenly become a lot more common during a real-life election year.

Compare and Contrast with All Elections Are Serious Business, with which this trope can possibly overlap, particularly in more humorous takes.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The 2016 run of the Monster Cereals themed the cereals after elections, with the three main monsters pushing the fans to vote for their favorite cereal. Count Chocula won in the end.

Anime & Manga

• Hunter × Hunter, by Yoshihiro Togashi, has not only an episode, but an entire Story Arc devoted to the Election of Chairman of the Hunter's Association. It shows off a very interesting power struggle, even the most good and honest characters are forced to retort to morally ambiguous tactics in order to increase their popularity, every movement (even the fights) is calculated to get more voters and support, and the masses are constantly swayed away by the candidates' showy propaganda, pompous speeches and shady promises instead of their actual arguments or background. And, for the most prominent characters, the election ends up being another game to test their skills against each other.
• The 14th episode of the PaRappa the Rapper anime has Matt and Paula run against each other for class president.
• YuYu Hakusho, also by Togashi, features a story arc that invokes this. While this isn't an election in a conventional sense (as there are no ballots of any kind cast), but the Tournament for the Kingship of Demon world is referred to by Yusuke Urameshi as being a "Presidential election where we cast our votes with our fists".

Comic Books

• #1 of the 2011 Alpha Flight series is set during the Canadian Federal Election. The winning party is the fictional Unity Party, whose leader quickly turns out to be Prime Minister Evil.
• DC Universe: Decisions was a 2008 miniseries in which the Justice League of America and other superheroes got involved in the US Presidential Election, initially to protect the candidates from an assassin but inevitably their own political viewpoints were revealed and several of them ended up endorsing rival candidates. (Except Superman; Clark even refused to discuss how he voted with Lois.)
• Archie Comics had a story where Betty and Veronica ran against each other for class president, with Veronica using her father's money to help her campaign (e.g. professionally printed campaign posters) and dragooning Archie into being her campaign manager. Sure enough, Veronica wins... narrowly, and with Archie voting for Betty and taking her to dinner as a consolation prize.

Comic Strips

• In a Peanuts story arc, Linus campaigns for class president, with Charlie Brown as his running mate. At the very end, however, Linus blows the election by mentioning the Great Pumpkin in his final campaign speech.
• In Doonesbury, Joanie's friend Ginny Slade ran for congress as a school project, challenging the district's Democratic incumbent. Ginny got crushed in the primary, and when her independent race ran out of money, she threw her support to Republican Lacey Davenport, who won.

Fan Works

• Family Guy Fanon has a few episodes that focus on this.
  • Season 1's "Do and Die" has cockamamie celebrity, Adam West run for mayor of Quahog, following the recent abdication of the last mayor, Buddy Cianci. Lois was not pleased with a loony idiot like Adam West becoming mayor, so she ran against him, enforcing a strict agenda. In the end, however, she lost and Adam West became the mayor of Quahog.
  • Season 16's "In With the News'" subplot sees Stewie go in disguise as an adult named "Mitchell Barnes" to run against Mayor Adam West in the upcoming mayoral re-election and become the new mayor of Quahog, so that he can take over the city and rule it like an evil dictator. Stewie does a weak job at getting anybody on his side and finds out that the majority of the early votes are for Mayor West, making it inevitable that he's going to lose. So he tries to rig the election with Vladimir Putin's help. However, Joyce reveals that the election was rigged, leading to "Mitchell's" mayorship getting immediately revoked and given back to Adam West, along with Stewie getting thrown in jail.
• Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends: The story climaxes on the day of the election of Mayor of The City, which Aldrich Coathanger is hoping to win in order to gain the power and influence needed for his master plan to wipe out all children.
• Power Rangers Wild Fury devotes a lengthy subplot to Ignoblia running for mayor in her human guise against the Corrupt Politician currently in charge. She manages a lot of support because the other guys is just that awful, but in chapter 23, she seals the results in her favour by hitting him with a Mirror Morality Machine, which makes him resign mid-election, essentially handing her the win.

Films — Live-Action

• Black Sheep has Chris Farley as the brother of a candidate in a senatorial election and his efforts to help him win. Unfortunately, his lack of social skills makes that rather difficult.
• Bob Roberts is about a cynical right-wing faux populist folk singer running for Senate.
• The Campaign: This is one of the central tropes of this movie. A congressman plagued by a sex scandal is running for re-election against his hometown's bumbling tourism director.
• The Candidate is a 1972 satire about political campaigns, centering around Robert Redford as an idealistic underdog Senate candidate who starts moderating his message when he figures out he has a chance to win.
• Citizen Kane: While not the main focus of the film, but nonetheless playing an important part of the overall story is Charles Kane's unsuccessful campaign for Governor of New York.
• The Dark Horse is about a hapless dolt that gets nominated to be Governor basically by accident, and all the cynical campaign operatives that are trying to get him elected.
• Election is about a Fille Fatale teen Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) running for student class president, and the teacher (Matthew Broderick) who hates Tracy so much that he recruits a football player to run against her.
• Election Night is about a young man who has a comic misadventure when he races across town to vote before the polls close.
• Two chapters of the first of The Green Hornet Serials focused on the election of a new mayor. (Specifically, on how the crooks were rigging the election to get their candidate into office.)
• The Ides of March: An ongoing Presidential Election is the backdrop of this drama as Stephen Meyers (played by Ryan Gosling) works on the campaign of Mike Morris (played by George Clooney).
• Our Miss Brooks: The cinematic series finale to the Our Miss Brooks series sees Mr. Conklin compete with school board head Mr. Stone for the newly created post of "Coordinator of Education". Mr. Conklin withdraws when Mr. Stone, who is independently wealthy, gets the board to set the salary for the position at a mere $500 per year. Meanwhile, in the main plot, Miss Brooks finally manages to achieve her Series Goal, marrying Mr. Boynton and living Happily Ever After.
• Primary is a documentary about the April 1960 Wisconsin Democratic primary contested between Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy.
• Most of Shampoo is set on November 4, 1968, when Richard Nixon was first elected President.
• Swing Vote: Bud Johnson (played by Kevin Costner) through an unusual set of circumstances is force to recast an illegible ballot that will break the tie for New Mexico's Electoral Votes and by extension decide the Presidential election.
• Street Fight is a documentary about the bruising 2002 Newark mayoral primary campaign between 16-year incumbent mayor Sharpe James and rising young Democratic Party star Cory Booker.
• The Three Stooges short Three Dark Horses has the boys being hired as delegates for a corrupt political candidate. After realizing that they were supporting a crook, the boys switch their vote to his opponent ... which does not make the crooked opponent's campaign managers happy.
• Welcome to Mooseport: A movie that features a race for Mayor of Mooseport, Maine between a former President of the United States (played by Gene Hackman) and a hardware store owner (played by Ray Romano).

Literature

• All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which has been adapted into two films (in 1949 and 2006), focuses on Willie Stark's campaigns for Governor and his subsequent terms in office.
• In an Amelia Bedelia book "Amelia Bedelia for Mayor", the title character runs for mayor.
• Isaac Asimov:
  • "Franchise": America is about to hold another presidential election, but since the creation of Multivac, elections are a bit different. In an election year, there's only one person voting, and they don't know who they are until just before the Election Day (to minimize the influence from political figures). They don't even vote for candidates directly, instead answering Multivac's questions about minutia such as "What did you think of the price of milk last year?"
  • "Evidence": This Short Story is about an electoral candidate, Stephen Byerley, who is accused of being a robot. It's not just mudslinging; only a human being can hold public office. Most of the story revolves around trying to prove he either is, or isn't, a robot. We never really learn the truth, as the evidence that won him popular opinion could've been faked.
• The Casual Vacancy centers around an election to replace a member of the local council who died of a sudden aneurysm at a critical and controversial point in his term.
• Dark Horse, a 1972 novel by Fletcher Knebel. Eddie Quinn, an obscure New Jersey highway official, is tabbed to be the emergency nominee of the Republican Party when the previous nominee suddenly dies three weeks before the election. Quinn, who is nominated essentially as a placeholder, comes out with a bold set of radical proposals which horrify party kingmakers—and send him shooting up in the polls, with a real chance of a Dark Horse Victory.
• The Bruce Sterling novel Distraction stars the head of a would-be Senator's campaign crew. As they travel through the collapsing wreckage of the U.S., their biggest challenge is finding anyone who still cares that there's a Federal Government, let alone who's in charge of it.
• At one point in Fish in a Tree, Mr. Daniels decides to have an election for class president as part of a school-wide government. Jessica nominates Shay, who decides to nominate Ally just to humiliate her by beating her. At first, Ally struggles. But during the final speeches, she manages to pull together a Rousing Speech that actually leads to her winning.
• Forest Kingdom: The Hawk & Fisher spinoff series' book 2 (Winner Takes All) is about Haven's annual election, and how Hawk and Fisher get stuck protecting one of the candidates.
• The Last Hurrah is about an elderly mayor running for re-election one last time, with the story focusing on the changing face of political campaigns following the New Deal and the rise of television advertising.
• The People's Choice by Jeff Greenfield is a novel of the election after the election. The winner of a Presidential election dies two days after the November vote. When his dimwitted Vice President Who? running mate chooses an even more dimwitted friend to be his vice president, the members of the Electoral College, who cast the actual votes to elect the President in December, realize they can elect anyone they want. Chaos ensues.
• Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat For President deals with the Rat and his family being sent to interfere in the internal affairs of a planet which is set up as the Expy of a corrupt South American Banana Republic. The President for Life has been The Generalissimo for over two hundred years, thanks to longevity drugs and immortality treatment. Jim diGriz is ordered to unseat him and to replace him with a more honest successor. What follows is an election campaign as crooked, dishonest and utterly bent as anything ever seen anywhere. Including Florida.
• Reconciling the position of Perry Rhodan's eponymous protagonist as Grand Administrator of the Solar Empire during the latter's existence with the fact that said empire was of course still meant to be a democracy at heart, this came up several times in the series. In one case, the risk of losing the upcoming next election while being too busy helping an alien civilization elsewhere in the galaxy to do much serious campaigning (with the main challenger meanwhile running on something of a "humanity first" platform) even informed the background mood of an entire thirty-issue arc.
• In the Ted E Bear book "Christmas Comes to Monster Mountain", Dracula is up for reelection, and he kidnaps Santa Claus as part of his campaign, leaving Ted himself with the business of Saving Christmas. This story, along with Ted E.'s Thanksgiving, was adapted into a low-budget special by DimenMark, as covered by Platypus Comix here.
• Crops up on occasion in the works of P. G. Wodehouse, with various Upper Class Twits running for public office, usually with disastrous results. (Two prime examples are the novel Much Obliged, Jeeves and the Ukridge short story "The Long Arm of Looney Coote".)
• The Warrior Cats short story Warriors Ultimate Leader: The Clans Decide. Around the 2008 Presidential election, HarperCollins decided to teach children about voting by creating a subsite where users could vote on their favorite out of several Clan Leader characters, and the winner would have a short story (involving voting) written about them. Ultimately it was Firestar, the protagonist of the main Warriors series, that won; the story was released when Barack Obama took office, and it focused on the Clans deciding to work together to survive a harsh winter and voting on whether Firestar should temporarily lead them all.

Live-Action TV

• The Addams Family had two. In one, Gomez runs for mayor, and in the other one, the Addamses vote.
• The Andy Griffith Show: Sheriff Andy Taylor was in the process of moving to another county to apply for a job, thus meaning he would have to relinquish his position as Sheriff of Mayberry. Deputy Barney Fife decided to run in the election to succeed him, but then unexpectedly Taylor decided against moving and choose to stay in Mayberry and keep his job. Thus Fife and Taylor were pitted against each other and Hilarity Ensues.
  • This was also one of the subplots of Return to Mayberry. Andy comes back to Mayberry to run for sheriff, but quietly drops out of the race when he finds out Barney (the "acting" sheriff) is running. When Barney finds out that Andy declined to campaign against him because of their friendship, he tells his supporters to vote for Andy as a write-in candidate because "that's what I'm gonna do."
• Avenue 5: In "Let's Play with Matches", the passengers depose Captain Ryan after the previous episode ended with him accidentally telling the whole ship all the various problems he's been keeping from them. After a brief attempt to replace him with a series of committees results in anarchy, it's decided to elect a "benevolent dictator" to take total control of the ship. Ultimately, after Nathan (the cannibal who stowed away from a prison space station a few episodes previous) nearly wins through sheer charm, it ends with one of the candidates drunkenly encouraging the passengers to reinstall Ryan on the grounds that his previous failures will make him a better leader now. So much to Ryan's own protests, he's put back in charge.
• Ballot Monkeys is a topical satire show running in the weeks prior to the May 2015 general election in Great Britain. It follows four hopeful would-be MP's, two representing the big parties (plus a Liberal and a UKIP candidate), as they go about the hustings, and mercilessly sends up both the parties and an electoral mechanism which seems as far removed from democracy as it's possible to get.
• Barney Miller has a couple of episodes revolving around elections.
  • In "The Election", taking place on Election Day 1976, an arrestee insists on using his right to vote so Wojo takes him to the polls, where he escapes. In a subplot inveterate gambler Nick is torn between who to bet on winning (Ford or Carter).
  • In a later episode Inspector Luger goes around trying to get people to vote for a firend of his. The only thing that anyone remembers is that he was involved in a political scandal, and the best that Luger can come back with is "they never proved any of that."
• In one episode of the Sixties Batman television series, the Penguin runs for Mayor of Gotham against Incumbent Mayor John Linseed, who in turn runs as the running mate of Batman. Linseed in turn returns as Mayor following Batman's successful election and subsequent resignation at the end of the episode.
• An election, an attempt to rig it, and how the discovery of a new planet tips the balance form the core of the Battlestar Galactica season 2 finale "Lay Down Your Burdens".
• Benson, which takes place in the Governor's mansion, naturally has one of these every four years or so.
  • In the first season Taylor runs for office and loses quite badly.
  • In the last season Benson is running for Governor because the current Governor is constitutionally enjoined from seeking another term. But then a loophole appears and he decides to run as an independent. The last episode of the series ends on a cliffhanger as the Governor and Benson sit together watching the election results come in.
  • The last three episodes of season three surround the Governor's reelection. The first of the three involves the Governor trying (and failing) to secure his party's nomination. The second has them take a trip to the Gatling family lumber mill and Benson convincing him to run as an independent. The third shows the election itself. (Considering the show lasts four more years, it's not hard to guess who wins.)
  • The fourth and fifth episodes of season six revolve around an emergency election for lieutenant governor who was impeached in the season premiere. The two candidates are Benson and Senator Tyler. Needless to say, Benson wins.
• The Brokenwood Mysteries: When the long-time mayor is found dead in the lead up to a mayoral election, all the candidates become suspects. Doubles as the show's Christmas Episode, as his body is found after the annual Brokenwood Christmas parade.
• The Cool Kids did an election episode where the four of them try to run against gorgeous George for activities coordinator, Hank decides to run Charlie using jokes, but Margaret decides to run Sid against Charlie and does a huge slander campaign. Sid and Charlie are unhappy with the way they are being bossed around so they decide to ditch Hank and Margaret and run their own campaign. Hank tries to put mushrooms in Georges food to make it so he is too high, but Sid and Charlie end up eating the food. With no other option, Hank and Margaret decide to give a speech and run, but after Sid dresses up as a dragon and assaults Gorgeous George, the worker who sold the drugs to Hank gets the job.
• The first episode of Blackadder the Third ("Dish and Dishonesty") is about a by-election in an obscure rotten borough that Blackadder and the Prince Regent manage to gain control over. The election itself is presented as a parody of modern election coverage, with an appearance by Vincent Hanna as "his own great-great-great-grandfather" reporting out of the window. Baldrick is elected thanks to shameless ballot stuffing by sole voter and returning officer E. Blackadder.
• The Brady Bunch had "Vote for Brady", where Greg and Marcia compete for class president.
• Columbo did this a couple of times.
  • Columbo has his work cut out for him in "Candidate for Crime" when a politician disposes of his manager in the running-up to an election, with the big finale (and apprehension of the culprit) occurring on election eve.
  • "Agenda for Murder" has a lawyer and political fixer commit murder to protect himself and his biggest client, a congressman who's gotten tabbed by his party's nominee to be Vice President. The episode ends with Columbo confronting the killer in a side room adjacent to the big hall where the nominee is celebrating his victory in that night's California primary.
• Community had an episode ("Intro to Political Science") in which an emergency election is held for class president for the Vice President's visit. The candidates are two women seeking to promote their issues, two men who enter specifically to antagonize those women, a drug dealer who later drops out to focus on that career, a party animal whose statements consist solely of his catchphrase, a cantankerous old man who's openly antagonistic of the voters, and a guy who was nominated by accident. After a series of death threats, petty arguments, and embarrassing secrets, the winner is eventually chosen: South Park.
  • The main storyline has idealistic Annie running for office, while cynical Jeff enters to show her what a hollow sham politics is - his campaign is all spouting feel-good platitudes and he roars to the lead. Annie ends up taking the low road by presenting an Old Shame video of Jeff trying out for MTV's "The Real World" dressed up as George Michael.
• In Dan for Mayor Dan is a slacker who decides to run for mayor of the city of Wessex in order to impress an ex-girlfriend. The incumbent mayor is extremely popular so Dan does not stand a chance until the mayor fails to Look Both Ways and is killed by a bus. The rest of the first season shows Dan trying to run a serious election campaign while trying to put his personal life in order.
• On The Dick Van Dyke Show Dick's run for town council comes down to the wire. Dick frets that he is in the running because he has a glamorous job in television and has an attractive wife, while his opponent is extremely knowledgeable but bland.
• In one storyline of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Uncle Phil runs for state judge against his mentor, Judge Robinson. In the last episode of the storyline, Robinson launches a smear campaign against Phil, but Phil refuses to sink to his level, intending to run a clean campaign, having faith that L.A will have faith in him. It then instantly cuts to election night where it's revealed that Robinson defeated Phil in a Landslide Election.
  Uncle Phil: I hate L.A.
• Hey Vern, It's Ernest!: In "Holidays," Ernest decides to enter the record books by celebrating all of the major holidays in one day; when it comes time to celebrate Election Day, Ernest heads off to the voting booth... or, rather, step into his shower in lieu of a voting booth.
• In one episode of Happy Days, Richie wants to vote for a socialist president, but Howard wants him to vote for Ike Eisenhower, who is Republican.
• Have I Got News for You is usually recorded on Thursday night, for broadcast the following evening. Election specials are recorded on the Friday morning for broadcast that evening, giving the producers only a few hours in which to edit the recording and deliver it for broadcast.
  • One of the most memorable editions was the 2010 special, where there was a hung parliament (no party had enough seats to win) and the difficulties of recording the episode so close to broadcast proved to be for nothing as they still had no idea what the result would be. It was also notable for former MP Lembit Opik appearing mere hours after unexpectedly losing his seat.
• Kirby Buckets did an episode in Season 2. Kirby is forced to eat lunch with Principal Mitchell 100 days in a row after he is caught throwing a party in Mitchell’s office. The only way out of the punishment is a pardon from the school president, which has typically been a vacant position. Dawn, who’s been annoyed by Kirby’s loud chewing in the cafeteria, conspires to keep Kirby’s punishment ongoing and enlists a perpetually unlucky boy named Sad Randy to run as a puppet and get the sympathy vote. To stop Randy from winning, Kirby gets Fish and Eli to run against Randy. Eli promises to run an honest campaign, but can’t afford campaign supplies and is forced to make a deal with an old woman to get them in exchange for having his cheeks pinched. Fish, meanwhile, is very reluctant to enter the race due to his very aggressive campaign style, but Kirby ultimately convinces him to join. Eli takes responsibility for breaking his honesty pledge and drops out of the race and Randy is disqualified after Kirby exposes the ruse, leaving Fish as the winner. Unfortunately for him, pardoning Mitchell’s detentions is all the president can do.
• Leverage: "The San Lorenzo Job" has the team go to that country to make sure a new president is elected, so they can see that Arc Villain Damien Moreau is put away for good. To that end, they install themselves as the opposing candidate's campaign team, and run a series of Blatant Lies as political ads, then on election day they release information to make the entire country think they won, to the point that even if the president does come out with more votes, everyone will think it was rigged.
• Life with Derek had an episode where Casey uses her stepbrother Derek as a puppet to run for school office and get the "cool" vote while enacting her ideas. Their friend ends up winning as a write-in instead.
• Lizzie McGuire had an episode where the title character runs for student body president against Claire and Larry Tudgeman.
• Madam Secretary spent the first half of season three on a rather hair-raising election arc (heavily inspired by the then-current 2016 US presidential election) that starts with President Dalton, protagonist Liz McCord's boss, losing a primary challenge. Liz talks him into refusing to step down and running as an independent. He ultimately wins by forcing a three-way draw in the electoral college, which punts the election to the House of Representatives and lets him eke out a win.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: One Season 2 episode had Tommy and Kimberly (and Bulk) running for school president, which Lord Zedd decided to take advantage of to turn them against each other by jinxing them with a Hate Plague. In the end, Tommy decides to step down and support Kimberly, who wins by a landslide.
• Modern Family has Season 3's "Election Day", where the family does some last-minute publicity for Claire's campaign on the day of the City Council election.
• Monk had an episode where Natalie was running for a position on the school board, only to be subjected to a series of threats on her life. It later turns out that the threats on her life had nothing to do with the election.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus has the Election Night Special skit which parodies news reports of British Election results. The election in question is between the Silly Party and the Sensible Party (with the Very Silly Party and the Slightly Silly Party also running in some districts).
• My Hero (2000): In "The Mayor of Northolt", George Sunday runs for Mayor so he can get a streetlight outside his in-laws' house fixed. He wins the election despite his opponent's attempt to sabotage him, gets the streetlight fixed, and promptly resigns, having accomplished the one thing he wanted to do. He then admits to his wife Janet that he was surprised by how much the voters seemed to care about the streetlight.
• My Name Is Earl: "Cost Dad the Election" has Earl try to help his dad run for mayor again.
• The Murdoch Mysteries episode "Election Day" is set during the 1902 Ontario Provincial Election, with the culmination of the storyline about one of Julia's friends being a suffragist candidate, and electoral fraud leading to murder.
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide to School Elections had Ned running for class president, albeit a bit against his will because he thought it was just a popularity contest. In the end, the school's resident runaway weasel is elected, but a number of Ned's friends win the "lesser" positions because they were running unopposed, and thus have the real power to enact some of Ned's campaign promises like more time outdoors.
• The New Adventures of Beans Baxter: In "Beans for President", an assignment to save the President's daughter interferes with Beans' candidacy for class president of his high school.
• One episode of Night Court revolves around a local election which Dan was participating in. A fire forces everyone to take shelter in the morgue. After they're rescued, it's revealed that Dan initially lost the election, but this became a tie shortly afterward due to an uncounted vote. This leads to a second example.
• The whole fourth season of Parks and Recreation centers on Leslie's campaign for City Councilor, culminating with the season finale "Win, Lose, or Draw".
• Northern Exposure did an episode where semi-official Mayor-for-life Holling actually faces an electoral opponent, and ends up losing to her. Then in a later season, Maggie is elected mayor.
• Radio Enfer. The episode "L'école en campagne" is about Jean-Lou running for First Cycle President because he always liked election campaigns. He loses at the end, but decides to run for class president.
• Red Dwarf: The season 12 episode "Mechocracy" sees the mechanoid Kryten and hologram Rimmer running for "Machine President" in order to resolve a strike amongst the machines of the titular ship. The election is initially a draw, but Kryten wins by making a deal with Talkie Toaster for his vote.
• The Republic of Sarah: In "A Show of Hands", in response to allegations that the new nation is becoming a dictatorship, Greylock hosts elections for a new four-member legislature to help Sarah run things with checks and balances.
• SCTV has an episode that features the local Melonville elections, where institutionalized mentally ill incumbent mayor Tommy Shanks runs against incredibly slimy opponent Vic Hedges, the bottle bill is worded so confusingly that it is impossible to understand, and the voters vote down the Up with Melonville campaign, but vote for a second nuclear dump site to be created near the town.
• 7th Heaven: The aptly-titled "Vote" featured the 2004 presidential election, in which the message "voting is important because it helps you have a say in politics" is anviliciously drilled in, with the characters having long-winded speeches about the importance of voting in every scene. Hell, the episode ended with the cast telling the audience to vote in a series of individual shots.
• Shining Time Station: In "The Mayor Runs for Re-Election", the mayoral election comes to Indian Valley and Mayor Flopdinger desires to keep his position of Mayor. Schemer offers to help Flopdinger by acting as his campaign manager in the election against Richard Richhouse. On the night of the mayoral debate, Flopdinger realizes that Schemer's ideas as campaign manager are to promote his arcade, and fires him, also realizing that in order to be a good leader, you have to keep the promises you make, which results in him winning the election by one vote. Notably, this became a Banned Episode when PBS re-ran the episode on the day of Richard Nixon's funeral.^note While PBS might've seen this as a tribute to him, many parents were understandably upset, and the station, as well as series creator Rick Siggelkow, had to issue an apology the following day.
• Smallville has the class president election as its main focus in "Drone", and several episodes in season five revolving around the senatorial election, coming to a conclusion in "Reckoning".
• Saved by the Bell has an election-day episode where Zach displays his manipulative side as usual. He doesn't care about politics until he secretly overhears that there's a free trip for the winner.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
  • "The Collaborator" had Major Kira get involved in the Bajoran religion's election of the next kai^note equivalent to the Roman Catholic Pope. The two front-runners are the reform-minded Vedek^note archbishop/cardinal Bareil Antos, and the more orthodox/conservative Vedek Winn Adami. Winn wins due to Bareil being falsely implicated as a former Cardassian collaborator.
  • In "Shakaar", Kai Winn assumes the role of interim First Minister of Bajor (the Bajoran secular head of state) after the former FM dies in office, and promptly gets into a political fight with a group of farmers led by Kira's old Resistance cell leader Shakaar Edon. After a brief uprising ends without bloodshed, Shakaar decides to run against her. The election isn't actually held this episode, but he wins offscreen.
• Succession: "America Decides" is about an in-universe presidential election — the characters, billionaires who own a major news network, are fretting about how to cover the vote counting after the polls close.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody had brothers Zack and Cody running against each other for student council. Cody wanted position because he loves politics and wanted to make a difference, while Zack wanted a free trip to Washington that came with the job. After Zack teams up with London to buy the election, it becomes a contest over who can be the most showy.
• The Superstore episode titled "Election Day" features election-related shenanigans at the titular big-box store. Amy and Jonah, dismayed at the Cloud 9 head honchos blatantly pushing anti-labor candidates, try to persuade their coworkers to vote for the opponents. Glenn and Dina accidentally destroy a box of ballots, while Mateo tries to get his hands on an "I Voted" sticker so no one finds out he's undocumented.
• That's So Raven had an episode where Chelsea runs for class president because the school is literally falling apart and she wants to make a difference. Raven has a vision Chelsea won't win, and does everything she can to prevent her vision from becoming true.
• Those Who Cant had a brilliant episode where the Smoot High School polling station is the epicenter of Denver's mayoral election and Fairbell has to cast the deciding vote.
• Government Procedural show Veep ends its fourth season with "Election Night", in which protagonist Vice President (then Acting President) Selina Meyer and her opponent Senator O'Brien are locked in a down-to-the-wire battle for the presidency. When this ends with a tied Electoral College, Selina's team then spends all of Season 5 trying to influence the resulting Congressional vote on the matter, which culminates in the penultimate episode of the season, "Kissing Your Sister".
• The last episodes of Veronica Mars deal with his father running for Neptune's sheriff office against a recurring Anti-Villain. The result is left ambiguous.
• The West Wing naturally made a big deal of the re-election of President Bartlet in season 4's "Election Night", and the election of his successor in Season 7's "Election Day" and "Election Day, Part 2", ending long campaign-trail story arcs.
• The Wire has Season 4's "Margin of Error," centering in large part on the Democratic primary race for Mayor of Baltimore City, including the campaigning and game-playing in both the Carcetti and Royce camps. Somewhat unusually, it extends out into other areas, showing the impact of the election on the police (specifically, how Kima and another detective are forced to serve as uniformed officers for a day to monitor the polls so that they can't complete their investigation of a politically sensitive murder before the election) and the street (with Randy being given money to distribute flyers for a candidate).
• Wizards of Waverly Place had an episode where Zeke runs against Justin for student body president in an attempt to become more independent from Justin. Justin is almost thrown out the race because he's blamed for a school prank involving an abundance of his campaign advertisements.
• On WKRP in Cincinnati episode "Carlson for President", Carlson runs for city council, and then, after accidentally letting slip an embarrassing secret about another candidate, sabotages himself so he doesn't win because of it.
• Zoey 101 has one in season 2, with Zoey (the protagonist) running against her best friend, Chase for student body president. They both end up dropping out of the race because it was ruining their friendship, so Mark Delfigalo (Quinn's boyfriend) ends up winning by default.

Podcasts

• In the Welcome to Night Vale episode "Old Oak Doors", the B-Plot is the resolution of the ongoing mayoral election between the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home and Hiram McDaniels, who is literally a five headed dragon.
• While much of Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye focuses on the lead-up to Connor Creek's important town council election, Chapter 5 specifically deals with the election itself, and all the strange traditions this involves. These include a 3:45 AM start time and caucuses that decide how to vote instead of who (i.e. blue ink or black ink, "I Voted" stickers or buttons, voting youngest to oldest or oldest to youngest, etc.).

Puppet Shows

• The Book of Pooh: In "A Smackeral in Every Pot", Rabbit announces that he has been invited to give a guest lecture at the Squash Society, and he needs someone to lead the next meeting of the Very Important Discussion Club to lead the next meeting while he's gone. When Rabbit says he needs a bold and courageous leader, Roo nominates Tigger, and when Rabbit says he also needs a thoughtful and considerate leader, Pooh nominates Piglet. Owl decides to have an election to decide who the new leader will be. On the day of the election, the wind knocks over Piglet's banner, and Piglet saves Tigger from having it fall on him by pushing him out of the way. When Piglet is upset over the state of his banner, Tigger returns the favor by letting him use his (even going as far as letting him put his name on it). The election ends in a tie, and it is revealed that Piglet voted for Tigger for being thoughtful and giving him his banner, and Tigger voted for Piglet for being bold and saving him from his fallen banner. Owl has both Piglet and Tigger lead the meeting, or at least he would have had Rabbit's lecture not ended early.
• In the Dinosaurs episode, "And the Winner is...", the previous Chief Elder dies of a heart attack while naming Baby, resulting in Baby briefly being named "Aaah Aagh I'm Dying You Idiot". B.P. Richfield runs for the position of Chief Elder, and gets Earl to run against him since Earl is stupid enough to lose. Earl has two dreams, the first where how horrible the world is if Richfield wins, and another where he accidentally causes a war from the pressure of being Chief Elder if he wins. On the night of the debate, Earl reveals that neither him nor Richfield are qualified to be Chief Elder. When the results are announced, Richfield gets more votes than Earl, but the winner is write-in candidate Edward R. Hero, the news reporter who has been reporting on the campaigns.
• Sesame Street: The Season 15 finale sees "No Electioneering" signs plastered all over the street, as Big Bird learns that David and Olivia are off to the voting booths because it's Election Day. David and Olivia explain to Big Bird that people vote for who they want to run in certain offices in the government, so Big Bird and Snuffy decide they want to vote too, but they can't because they're not old enough to register to vote (and because Snuffy was still "imaginary" at the time).

Radio

• In New Dynamic English, there is a two-part topic about elections: one about tax policy and the other one about the Representative of Congress, which Kathy (and Larry) can't vote because they live in Washington DC.

Theatre

• The climax of Abe Lincoln in Illinois comes when Lincoln and his inner circle sit around at campaign headquarters monitoring the returns on Election Night 1860.
• State of the Union—sort of. The whole plot is about Grant Matthews' campaign for the 1948 Republican presidential nomination, but Grant winds up dropping out of the race before the convention.
• Hamilton is all about politics in its second act, but "The Election of 1800" late in the musical revolves around Thomas Jefferson versus Aaron Burr, after John Adams, the incumbent president, is guaranteed to lose. The people seem to be leaning more in Burr's direction, since they see Jefferson as a France-loving elitist, and Burr as a more approachable, less extremist kind of guy. However, it's pointed out that Burr is too much of a people pleaser, and isn't that dedicated to any particular position. James Madison proposes that Jefferson seek Hamilton (his former political rival) for an endorsement. Hamilton ultimately agrees to endorse Jefferson in an Enemy Mine - while he disagrees with Jefferson on pretty much everything, Jefferson at least has strong beliefs and convictions, and Burr has none. Burr loses the election in a landslide, and is given extremely reduced powers as Vice President by president-elect Jefferson out of spite.
• David Williamson's 1971 play Don's Party (later adapted to a film in 1976), which revolves around a group of friends who get together to watch the coverage of the 1969 Australian Federal Election. Williamsom followed it up decades later with Don Parties On, about the 2010 election.

Video Games

• Some political simulation games (such as the Political Machine series and Democracy series) are based entirely around this trope.
• Fallen London held its first mayoral election In 1894 (2016) where players could support the candidate of their choice and the winner would be the candidate who receives the greatest overall support from the most Notable players. However, the candidates were rather...eccentric: a boisterous bishop who challenges others to wrestling contests and wants to invade Hell (again), a revolutionary who contradicts every single opinion he comes across and treats his campaign like it's one big elaborate joke, and a sin-loving nun who may actually be the most sensible of all the candidates...and ended up winning the election by a significant margin.
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories had a mission strand where Toni tries to help Donald Love win an election for mayor of Liberty City. Of course, with this being Grand Theft Auto, some rather underhanded techniques are used. (The result is a Foregone Conclusion if you've played Grand Theft Auto III since Love is not the mayor of Liberty City in that game, set three years later.)
• The third chapter of Highborn averts the No Campaign for the Wicked trope in two ways: the "bad guys" are the playable faction for the chapter, and the Arch-Lich in charge of them is running an election campaign. It comes complete with dragons kissing babies during a rally for their candidate.
• In Love & Pies, the Rival Season Pass is about Acting Mayor Mei running for the mayoral election against Edwina, who tries sabotaging her campaign by destroying the town's historic gatehouse, spreading lies about Mei, and leaking her old video of her crying over her gymnastics routine being rated 7 out of 10. Edwina wants to get her revenge on her since the former's father Sebastian used to be the mayor, and she also wants to build Global Megacorp MegaWarehouse as per his contract. However, Mei stands up to her and makes her campaign push through with the player's help.
• The aptly-named "Election Day" heist in PAYDAY 2 focuses on the crew rigging the Washington D.C. mayoral election in favor of their supported candidate: Bob McKendrick, a "slimy ballbag" of a politician who's corrupt and incompetent whom Bain despises. The crew is only getting him in power because he'll transfer their old friend Hoxton to a lower-security prison, allowing the crew to break him out. Depending on how things turn out, the crew can either successfully and stealthily rig the election, blow stealth and frame the rigging on McKendrick's opponent, or fail to rig the machines at all, instead destroying the machines during the election itself under the cover of a bank robbery, forcing a recount later.

Webcomics

• The Last Days of FOXHOUND: This strip has Psycho Mantis going over the 2004 United States Presidential Election and the polling at the time of the strip's publication. This being Psycho Mantis, he's a lot more harsh about it than usual examples of this trope.

Web Videos

• The Election Arc of the Dream SMP classifies as this, where Quackity ran against Wilbur to try to win the presidency of L'Manburg to prevent a one-party election and everything that happened afterward. It ended with Jschlatt, a late-coming third-party candidate, winning the election after Quackity pooled his votes with him, kicking Wilbur and Tommy out of the country, and everything going downhill from there.
• SMPLive: Schlatt's mayoral campaign, to which several server members object.
• Steve D'Monster : In "May the Best Monster Win," Steve decides he wants to not only be the next President of the U.S. of A., but also to be the first Monster President in history, and begins campaigning, even bringing Easter Egg in as his running mate. ^note  Shortly afterwards, Sesame Street took to YouTube and announced Elmo had become the first Monster President in history.

Western Animation

• 101 Dalmatians: The Series: The episode "Citizen Canine", in which Lucky decides to run against Ed Pig as the farm's mayor, after the mayor makes a few too many unfair laws.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius had Jimmy, Sheen, and Libby face off against each other for class president. They all cheat by harassing Carl (Libby for bribery, Sheen for blackmail, and Jimmy for operating a zeppelin on school premises), so the election is given to Bolbi, the weird new foreign exchange student.
• Doug: "Doug Runs" has two parallel plots, both related to one character pursuing a public charge. Doug wants to be Class Treasurer and Mrs. Dink, fed up with White's antics, wants to be elected mayor.
• In The Adventures of Lariat Sam by Terrytoons, "The Great Race for Office Space" has Sam competing against Badlands Meeney for the election of the sheriff of Bent Saddle. To settle the election, Mayor Winkie orders a horse race. Sam rides his faithful steed Tippytoes while Meeney has his lackey Bushwhack in a horse costume. The good guys win, of course, as Meeney reflects:
  Bushwhack: Don't feel bad, Badlands. I would have voted for you.
  Meeney: That would have made three, Bushwhack. Your one and my two.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Sonic is Running", Momma Robotnik forces Dr. Robotnik to run for president of Mobius. Robotnik hires Wes Weasely as his campaign manager to make him look good, and uses Hypno-vision commercials to hypnotize the citizens of Mobius into voting for him. When Sonic hears of this, he decides to run against Robotnik, bedevilling him every step of the campaign to expose his true colors. In the end, it is revealed that Sonic won in a landslide victory, and Robotnik only received one vote (his own). Not even Scratch and 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. After winning the election, Sonic gives the job of president of Mobius to Henry Walrus, the incumbent with a 90% approval rating.
• The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Princess Toadstool for President". Princess Toadstool and King Koopa campaign against each other for leadership of the Mushroom Kingdom. Cheatsy and Kooky cheat by giving Koopa a Nice Guy potion but their plan is foiled by the Mario Bros. Unsurprisingly, the princess wins in a landslide.
• All Hail King Julien has "Election" in which King Julien is tricked into holding an election to decide the king, not realizing he's agreed to give up his crown if he loses.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: In "May the Best Chipmunk Win," Alvin is running for school president, with absolutely no competition whatsoever; that is, until The Chipettes enroll at their school, and Brittany decides to run against Alvin in an attempt to gain popularity. Things really get sticky when they're tied in the polls and it turns out Jeanette has the deciding vote.
• Amphibia: In "Hop-Popular", tired of Mayor Toadstool's self-serving style of governing, Hop Pop decides to run against the usually unopposed toad in that year's election. Amphibian elections involve a series of trials done to determine the candidates' fitness; after Hop Pop easily wins in the first three trials, a worried Toadstool attempts to bribe him to throw the final challenge, a one-on-one boxing match. Hop Pop refuses his offer, wins the match, and earns 100% of the vote in town... only to lose the election due to the fact that he only campaigned in Wartwood, when the entire rest of the population of Frog Valley participated in the election.
• A prime time edition of 1969's The Archie Comedy Hour had a school election at Riverdale High with Reggie Mantle believing to be a shoo-in. The new girl, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, has difficulty making friends until she happens upon Big Moose, whose clumsiness nearly ruins the election. Sabrina helps Moose to win the election over Reggie.
• Arthur has an episode dedicated to a faux-election over class president of Mr. Ratburn's class. Arthur, who's pretty socially awkward and meek, is running against the flashy, wealthy Muffy, who's clearly trying to buy the election and takes numerous low blows at Arthur. Though the odds seem in Arthur's favor, ultimately last minute candidate Binky wins the election after proposing some pretty basic decisions like snacks in class. He learns to his dismay, however, that the position holds no actual power since it was a faux-election.
• In the Back at the Barnyard episode “Otis for Mayor” Nora Beady runs for mayor when the old one is indisposed after an ice fishing incident, thinking she can use the power to get rid of her annoying animal adversaries. Otis launches his own campaign to compete against her but in the end both are defeated by Bigfoot.
• In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King" Mayor Hamilton (who is the target of Clock King's revenge) is searching for re-election.
• Beetlejuice:
  • "Mr. Beetlejuice Goes to Town" has the Ghost with the Most running for Mayor of the Neitherworld... which he wins. However, after letting his win go to his head, Lydia schemes to get him impeached. His last act as Mayor is rather noble — striking the construction of the Lost Souls Highway which would have razed the Roadhouse.
  • "Running Scared" had B.J. as his Betty Juice persona running for president of Miss Shannon's School for Girls against Claire Brewster.
• The short "Betty Boop for President" has Betty Boop running for President of the United States.
• Blinky Bill had season 1's "Blinky Leads the Gang".
• The Boondocks Season 3 premiere "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman" satirizes public opinions of Barack Obama's successful campaign during the 2008 US presidential election.
• Bugs Bunny decides to formally oppose Yosemite Sam in a bid for public office in the 1951 short Ballot Box Bunny, directed by Friz Freleng. Neither wins.
• The Berenstain Bears: In the episode "The Big Election", Papa Bear runs for mayor in order to help fix small issues around town. However, he quits upon deciding he'd be too busy.
• Bob's Burgers has “The Millie-churian Candidate”, wherein Louise takes Tina’s job as Jimmy Jr’s campaign manager to keep her nemesis Millie from being elected class president. In the end the victor is Henry Habler, a dark horse nobody thought would win. It turns out Henry knew he wasn’t popular enough to beat clear favorite Jimmy Pesto Jr and purposely put the idea of running for president in Millie’s head. Knowing that Millie always makes Louise act irrational her efforts to help Jimmy Jr only tank his popularity. Louise tries in desperation to run herself and even gets Millie out of the race by causing her to assault a fellow student but Louise is also out because she broke the rules in the process, meaning Henry wins because everyone forgot about him.
• Buddy Thunderstruck has the main character running against Man of Wealth and Taste Belvedere Moneybags for mayor of their small town. While Buddy clearly has the popular vote, he gives everyone No. 1 pencils (Because Buddy is #1) to vote with, disqualifying all votes for him, which leads to Belvedere becoming mayor with a single vote.
• Dennis the Menace (1986): In "Wilson For Mayor", Mr. Wilson's tire gets damaged by a pothole, and Mr. Wilson blames Mayor Murray for not fixing it, saying he'd make a better mayor than him. Dennis likes this idea and encourages Mr. Wilson to go through with it. Unfortunately, Dennis' attempts to get people to vote for Mr. Wilson end up making the latter look bad, such as littering when they shoot posters out of a cannon, and causing a sonic shock when PeeBee turns his loudspeaker up too high. Mr. Wilson ends up losing the election to Murray, but also ends up getting the last laugh when Murray is forced to open his office to the youth of the community anytime they wish. With Dennis and his friends visiting Murray, he'll have more time for himself.
• The Deputy Dawg Show: In "People's Choice," Deputy Dawg thinks his re-election as deputy of Creekmud Junction is in the bag. The other animals stuff the ballot box with Vincent Van Gopher's name, thus making Vince the new deputy. Muskie and Ty Coon think they have the run of the land, unaware that Vince is upholding the law of the land and thwarting them at every turn.
• Donkey Kong Country has the episode "Vote of Kong-fidence" in which Bluster, jealous of Candy's love for Donkey Kong, demands an election be held to decide the future ruler of Kongo Bongo Island. The Inka Dinka Doo okays the prospect but with the condition that anybody on the island can run. This leads to King K. Rool starting a campaign. None of the candidates are ideal; DK is a dope who just wants to be lazy and have fun while having no platform besides wanting people to like him, K. Rool is plotting to become a tyrannical dictator once elected due to being a villain, and Bluster just wants power for the sake of it and makes it transparent it's just a way to pad his wallet. Most of the characters fall for K. Rool's charm and faux-populism while forgetting he's the Big Bad. DK ultimately wins the election by one vote by tricking Krusha into voting for him, while K. Rool comes in second and Bluster runs away crying after learning he only got one vote: himself (with his own mother voting against him).
• Doug features the episode "Doug Runs", in which Doug campaigns for class treasurer against Willie White (one of Roger's goons). This runs in parallel with Mrs. Dink running for mayor against Willie's Authority in Name Only father. In the end, Mrs. Dink becomes mayor, and Doug and Willie lose the school election to Skeeter's uncle Dan Freebird (whose campaign material for city treasurer Skeeter attempted to repurpose for Doug's campaign).
• One episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy has the kids hold an election for "king of the cul-de-sac", with Plank and Eddy as the main candidates. Given Eddy's unpopularity, the results are predictable.
• The Fairly OddParents! had the episode "Hail to the Chief" where Timmy runs against co-student council presidents Tad and Chad. In a twist Timmy wins but hates being president, so he intentionally gets himself impeached.
• In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Setting a President", Frankie challenges Mr. Herriman for the position of house manager, and they hold an election. Bloo briefly posts himself as a candidate (mostly for the attention), and after coming last on the polls, becomes Herriman's campaign manager.
• Frisky Dingo: The first part of season 2 revolves around an Killface (Democrat) and Xander's (Republican) election campaigns for the Presidency of the United States after both take credit for using the Annihilatrix to end global warming. The story arc ends with the first debate between, wherein the moderator tells the two candidates that neither is actually eligible to be elected as Killface is not a U.S. citizen and Xander is only 33. One Time Skip later, it's revealed that the two candidates vice presidential picks teamed up to become the president and vice-president without them.
• In the Futurama episode "A Head in the Polls", Richard Nixon runs for Earth President using a robot body (initially Bender's) and wins. "Decision 3012" is about another Earth President election, this time with Nixon running against a competent canidate of mysterious origins.
• The Gravity Falls episode "The Stanchurian Candidate" features Grunkle Stan and Bud Gleeful running for mayor upon the death of the old mayor. Most notably, it's named after The Manchurian Candidate, and like said book, it involves mind control. It's later revealed that Bud is a puppet of Gideon and being used to get Gideon out of jail. Stan does technically win, but is disqualified due to his criminal record, resulting in Tyler Cutbiker winning and becoming Mayor for the rest of the series.
• Hey Arnold!: Marty Green, a butcher shop owner, angry at the fact that his councilman was failing to do things to help the community he represented (such as failing to get funds to repair and repave roads which had massive potholes) and spent more time golfing than working on legislation, decided to oppose him in the upcoming election. Green won.
• Invader Zim has an election day episode, after the actual class president goes crazy in front of the class. Zim wants to win the election because of the power that it would imply (never mind it's just an school election) and Dib wants to stop him because... well, it's his job, and his school life would suck with Zim in charge. He can't win because he's not popular, so he helps a secondary candidate. Dib succeeds in making Zim lose, but it turns out that the school just lobotomizes the election's winner to do the school's bidding, so in the end Zim thanks Dib for saving his life.
• King of the Hill:
  • Subverted in one episode. Hank Hill is unsatisfied with some laws passed by the Arlen city council and thus decides to run for a seat on the council. However, when he goes to file for his campaign, he is informed that there had been a vacancy and thus he won by default.
  • Another episode centers around the 2000 presidential election. Hank Hill faces a crisis of conscience after finding out that his hero, George W. Bush, has a weak handshake.
• In The Little Rascals episode "Alfalfa for President", Alfalfa and Waldo run competing campaigns for class president at their school.
• The Littlest Pet Shop (2012) episode "Inside Job" has an A-story about a battle for the high school's position of president of the student council.
• The Miraculous Ladybug episode "Darkblade" centered on two elections: one is the vote for class representative, which protagonist Marinette runs for against Chloé, and the other is the mayoral election, which ends with the loser (after much hounding from the press) getting akumatized.
• Muppet Babies (2018): In "Rizzo For Mayor", when Miss Nanny explains the concept of a mayoral election to the babies, Rizzo overhears and nominates himself as a candidate for the mayor of the playroom. Summer also nominates herself as a mayoral candidate, so the babies hold an election. Rizzo gets the upper edge by making wild promises, whereas Summer's promises are simple ones she knows she can do. Rizzo wins the election, but has a hard time fulfilling his promises, and has to learn the consequences of making wild promises the hard way. In the end, Rizzo realizes that Summer kept all the promises she made by helping him, so he lets her be mayor.
• The New Archies: Betty and Veronica run for class president, but they both withdraw right before the voting starts. Most of their classmates didn't vote for anybody because they can't decide. Jughead, who votes for himself, is the only person who gets a single vote.
• In the PAW Patrol episode "Pups Save Election Day", Mayor Goodway and Mayor Humdinger compete in Adventure Bay's mayoral election. During this, Major Humdinger's gaudy advertising campaign goes awry, prompting a rescue from the PAW Patrol.
• In one episode of Pig City, Martha was running against Link for student body president. Mikey secretly helped her by also running, splitting Link's voting demographic. After Link dropped out, Mikey sabotaged himself to ensure Martha a victory.
• The Pinky and the Brain episode, "The Pink Canidate" revolves around Pinky running for President of the United States in the 1996 election with Brain as his running mate.
• Popeye:
  • The 1947 short "Olive Oyl for President" (a remake of Fleischer's "Betty Boop for President") is pretty much a Dream Sequence stretched out to animated short subject form.
  • Another short has Popeye and Bluto competing in an election which is a dead heat. Olive is the deciding vote, so Popeye and Bluto vie for it.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Impeach Fuzz" features Fuzzy Lumpinks, after realizing a mayor election The Mayor had won for years, had joined the election and won. Then he causes Townsville to go into chaos, so its up to the girls to get The Mayor back against Fuzzy.
• The Proud Family: Penny Proud in one episode, called "Election" makes a campaign to win an election as student body president running against Wizard Kelly's (who is an In-Universe major celebrity) son. Penny has some difficulty in the campaign (such as being three points behind... undecided) in which one of her friends (who is also working on her campaign) went so far as to orchestrate a Watergate-style break-in.
• Episode "The Evergreen Election!" of The Raccoons has Bert Raccoon and Cyril Sneer competing for Mayor of the Evergreen Forest. Bert was clearly the frontrunner causing the Pigs to commit voter's fraud in favor of Bert (in order to not lose their jobs if Sneer wins). Finding this Sneer, as the honorable villain he is makes this public and the election is repeated. Lady Baden Baden wins.
• Recess: The episode "The Candidates" involves a fourth-grade election for class president between Vince and Gretchen. Gretchen wins.
• The Rocko's Modern Life episode "Ed Good, Rocko Bad" has Rocko and Ed Bighead running for the position of town dog catcher.
• Rugrats (1991): The episode " Tommy for Mayor" features the gang pretending to do an election against Angelica.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish", Bart catches a three-eyed fish in a river downstream of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. After an inspection of the plant reveals numerous safety violations, Mr. Burns runs against Mary Bailey for governor to prevent the plant from being shut down. The night before the election, Burns has a televised dinner with the Simpsons to show his appeal to the common voter. Marge, who supports Bailey, sabotages Burns' political stunt and dooms his campaign by serving him the head of Blinky, the three-eyed fish.
  • The subplot of "Lisa's Substitute" focuses on Bart running against Martin for class president. While Bart is the more popular candidate due to his jokes and other gimmicks, Martin wins by two votes- since he and Wendell were the only ones who bothered to vote.
  • "Sideshow Bob Roberts" has Mayor Quimby pardon Sideshow Bob from prison only for Bob to run against him in the next election. Bob wins initially, but Quimby is restored to the office after it's discovered that Bob cheated in the election.
  • The third segment of "Treehouse of Horror VII" is entitled "Citizen Kang", where Kang and Kodos capture Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and disguise themselves as them to trick the Earthlings into voting for either of them so they can take over the Earth.
  • "Trash of the Titans" has Homer run for Sanitation Commissioner, with the promise of having garbagemen cleaning the residents' trash instead of having the residents take it out themselves. He promptly wastes his whole annual budget on new uniforms and amphibious trucks.
  • "E Pluribus Wiggum" focuses on the Springfield 2008 Presidential Primaries.
• The South Park episode "Douche and Turd" is about an election for a new school mascot after PETA "frees" their original cow mascot. The two candidates are a "giant douche" and a "turd sandwich". The episode concludes that in every election, the choice is between a douche and a turd. Also, the election was for nothing in the end, since P. Diddy and his group massacred PETA, meaning they're free to continue using Mooey the Cow as their mascot.
• The Steven Universe episode "Dewey Wins" sees Nanefua Pizza running for mayor against incumbent Bill Dewey. Dewey loses.
• Simon Bar Sinister, the principal nemesis of Underdog, disperses treated feathers across the entire United States, keeping every American rolling on the ground laughing on Election Day. Only Simon and his henchman, Cad Lackey, are coherent enough to cast votes, electing Simon as United States Dictator by a total of two votes.

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