Tropes associated with this episode:
- The Bully: Joel and Kenny, two bigger boys who spend the better part of the recess tormenting Elmer Dobkins for being mentally delayed and shy. They later nominate him as school president as a joke, to prove that even the "dumbest boy" can beat the smartest girl (Mary).
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Nellie bribes colleagues to nominate her for school president and later tries to buy her victory with sweets and parties. It's all for naught after Mary resignates hers in Elmer's favour when she sees that he's the one who should win and most of the class is moved by his speech.
- Decided by One Vote: The dispute between Elmer and Nellie is tied, with only Willie left to vote.
- Establishing Character Moment: Elmer's first scene has him going to school alone, and getting his attention by the sound of a baby bird that fell off the nest. He carefully picks the baby from the ground and places it back on the nest, while observing its mother, before talking to her that he didn't hurt the baby. It shows his approach towards animals that need care and his sensitive personality.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Elmer may be mentally challenged, but as his own father points out, he's not stupid. He promptly realizes that Joel and Kenny only nominated him for class president as a joke and that the way other kids treat him is unfair.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Elmer's Breaking Speech, Joel and Kenny seem someshwat remorseful, and after he wins the election thanks to Willie's vote, one of them can be seen patting Willie on the head and they're later seen saying goodbye to him in friendly terms, implying they'll start treating him better from now on.
- Kids Are Cruel: When Joel and Kenny set up a humiliating prank on Elmer by putting him above the seesaw and mocking him, all the kids sans the Ingalls girls can be seen laughing at him.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Elmer. Mentally delayed, loves animals and has a fondness for taking injured animals home and nursing them back to health.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Willie is the last vote left when there's a tie between Nellie and Elmer. Nellie trusts he'll vote for her because she blackmailed him by giving him a cigar from the Mercantile and saying she'd tell their father he was smoking. He votes for Elmer instead, because of that and because he trusts Elmer won't let Nellie pick on him.
- Not So Above It All: Caroline disapproves of Laura's idea to make a slandering poster comparing Nellie to a contemporaneus businessman who was arrested for buying votes for his preferred candidate and still didn't win, but when Charles suggests that Laura draw Nellie's ringlets bigger and her lips covered with licorice, she can't help but laugh.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After being thrown into the mud by Joel and Kenny for giving up on the president nomination, Elmer makes it to school and gives them a piece of their mind after being laughed at:
Elmer: “I don’t even know what a class president is supposed to do, but I know what’s right and wrong and I don’t think the older kids should be picking on others. And it ain’t right to give someone something to make ‘em vote for you (directing it to Nellie), or pushing people into mud (Joel and Kenny's expressions change). (holds the shirt his ma made him to wear for the election). "My mother made me this shirt because she loves me. You probably all think that’s dumb. But that’s what’s wrong around here: people don’t pay no mind to other people’s carings.”
After that, even Joel and Kenny are ashamed and a tear-eyed Mary raises her hand and announces she wants to quit in Elmer's favour, because he's the only one who knows what to do as school president.