History Main / VoteEarlyVoteOften

* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', Fundy attempts to rig the votes for the L'Manburg Presidential Election in favour of his party, [=Coconut2020=], with approximately 120,000 fraudulent votes being supplied from the same IP address.[[note]]Note that this was done without his running mate, Niki's knowledge.[[/note]] This gets {{defied|Trope}} when the fraudulent votes are disqualified during the election in the end, as he would have otherwise won the election if the fraudulent votes weren't disqualified. [[spoiler:After the DisasterDominoes that ensued in canon, [[MemeticMutation many fans joke]] that none of the [[CerebusSyndrome much more serious arcs]] following the Elections would have happened [[ForWantOfANail had]] the content creators just allowed [=Coconut2020=] to commit voter fraud.]]

* Done for comedy in ''Webcomic/{{Insecticomics}}''. A real-life poll was held by the author to assign a gender to the at-the-time genderless, biography-less [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Terrorsaur]] repaint [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Lazorbeak Lazorbeak]], who had been recently introduced to the comic. The Insecticons, being portrayed as [[ThePrankster playful but troublemaking]] {{troll}}s in the comic, decide to ruin the whole thing for fun by voting hundreds of times each, with the end result that Lazorbeak was arbitrarily considered female due to massive election fraud.

* [[ExaggeratedTrope Taken to extremes]] with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_D._B._King Charles D. B. King]] of [[UsefulNotes/{{Liberia}} Liberia]], who [[BlatantLies claimed to have received 243,000 votes....at a time when Liberia had only 15,000 registered voters]]. He got the "most fraudulent election" award in the 1982 ''Guinness World Book of Records'' for that.

* Online voting for the National Hockey League All-Star Game has generated some interesting results. In 2007, there was an organized campaign to vote in Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick as a starter, although he ended up finishing third in the voting - the two defensemen that finished ahead of him were future Hall-of-Famers Scott Niedermayer and Nicklas Lidstrom. For the 2015 game, Buffalo Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons was the top vote-getter thanks to a flood of votes from his native Latvia, while the next five top vote-getters were all from the Chicago Blackhawks.
* The 1948 election for the assembly of French Algeria was so rigged against the nationalists the term ''élection algérienne'' became a byword for "electoral fraud."

* Very common in the {{UsefulNotes/Philippines}}, in part because U.S. colonial attempts to impose American/Western-style democratic norms onto substantially different Filipino culture and power dynamics has resulted in political systems, including elections, being run in ways often...antithetical to democracy. (Then again, the American politicians who mentored Filipino oligarchs in the early 20th century were often Tammany Hall alumni themselves, something Filipino elites were presumably much more familiar and comfortable with.)

** Another instance of massive election fraud occurred in the 1969. Perhaps not coincidentally, this was the general election in which UsefulNotes/FerdinandMarcos, who had been president for one four-year term by that point, blew hitherto-unprecedented sums on his reelection campaign, which succeeded in winning him a second term—also unprecedented for a Philippine president during the Third Republic (1946–72), under election rules set down in the 1935 Constitution. He would, of course, go on to declare martial law in 1972, cementing him as a full-blown dictator. (It was in this period too that the term "guns, goons, gold" was coined, referring to the prerequisites of winning Philippine elections—which, following the 1949 standard, were not only extremely fraudulent, but often extremely ''violent'' to boot. Losing presidential candidate Sergio Osmeña Jr, [[HereditaryRepublic son of a previous Philippine president]], infamously complained: "we were out-gunned, out-gooned, and out-gold".)

* The 3rd Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, held in October 1971, had most of its awards nullified after Southern Gospel artists J.D. Sumner of the Stamps Quartet and Paul Downing of the Downings family group alleged that two members of the Blackwood Brothers, [[BandOfRelatives Cecil and James Blackwood]], signed friends as members of GMA and then "suggest" they vote for the Blackwood Brothers or - in categories they weren't eligible for - candidates that the two Blackwoods recommended; opening up suspicion of a fix that led to the GMA's nullifying most of the awards[[note]]among the awards voided included The Blackwood Singers, a spinoff group with both male and female members, winning what would have been their lone win in the "Mixed Group" (with both male and female members) category; James Blackwood winning Male Vocalist of the Year - which would have been his 8th and would have left Blackwood in sole possession of most Male Vocalist of the Year Dove Awards; with his 7 awards in this category being a tie with future Contemporary Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman and Sue Chenault (later Dodge) winning Female Vocalist of the Year - an award Chenault refused to return (one of the Blackwood Singers; Donna Blackwood, was also nominated). Sue would go on to a three-peat with no controversy in that category between 1972-74[[/note]]. James Blackwood, while apologizing, noted that such actions weren't [[LoopholeAbuse overtly prohibited]]; resulting in GMA [[ObviousRulePatch changing the rules]] to prevent a similar scandal from happening in the future.
* Pocket, or Rotten, Boroughs were Parliamentary constituencies in the UK where, due to irregular redistricting and strict franchising requirements, there were only a handful of registered voters in the area. This made it easy to buy or rig elections in those districts. The ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' example listed in Live-Action TV is an exaggeration, but problem was real until efforts were made to correct it in the mid-19th Century.

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* Taken to extremes with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_D._B._King Charles D. B. King]] of [[UsefulNotes/{{Liberia}} Liberia]], who [[BlatantLies claimed to have received 243,000 votes....at a time when Liberia had only 15,000 registered voters]]. He got the "most fraudulent election" award in the 1982 ''Guinness World Book of Records'' for that.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': Discussed briefly in one of the "Wheel of Morality" segments. The moral of the day, according to the wheel, is "Vote early and vote often". Dot's response is "How profound". Wakko's is to try to [[Series/WheelOfFortune buy a vowel]].

* Mentioned in ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' where the drunken Irish (mouse) Mayor of New York City attends the funeral of another mouse and notes that he was too young to vote, "But he'll vote from now on" and puts his name in a book of "ghost voters". Considering that said mouse ("[[BlatantLies Honest]]" John) was a pretty obvious reference to the Tammany Hall political machine, it makes perfect sense.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': Within the [[MagicalSociety Order of Hermes]], the Rhine Tribunal abuses the rules for proxy voting to award Masters and [[TheArchmage Archmages]] extra voting sigils from retired or dead magi, allowing elders to accumulate and bequeath a vast number of votes. When challenged, the Rhine elders [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem voted to make it legal]] in the Tribunal. Rather than go to war over it, the Order's law enforcement agents decided to block the practice from spreading to other Tribunals while they wait for a chance to knock the system down in the Rhine.

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[[folder:Comics]]
* ''Golgoti'' tells the history of the titular fictional African nation compressed into one man's lifetime, from the moment the first European explorer arrives to the area. The local man who first meets the explorer later becomes a stereotypical corrupt Third World president. After he allows "free" elections under political pressure, the official election results are that all other candidates received exactly zero votes, while the president was re-elected by ''several million more votes than the country's entire population''.

* In ''ComicStrip/ThimbleTheater'', when Nazillia holds an election between King Blozo and General Bunzo, both sides commit as much ballot-stuffing as they can manage.
-->'''Franchise/{{Popeye}}''': Tha's two milling votes an' they's only one milling people.\\
'''Blozo:''' Both sides voted often.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

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

* ''Film/{{Election}}'' [[spoiler:does this in reverse. While counting ballots, Mr. [=McAllister=] throws two votes for Tracy in the garbage in an attempt to deny her the victory.]]
* The trope name served as the tagline to Creator/JohnSayles' corrupt politician comedy ''Silver City''.
* The title character in ''Film/TheGreatMcGinty'' first comes to people's attention when he votes for the mayor 37 times. Of course, he only did it on the promise he'd get paid $2 for each vote, but still.
* In ''Film/InheritTheWind'', when Brady is told by the townsfolk that they all voted for him three times, Brady quips that he trusts it was in three separate presidential elections.
* In ''Film/BlackSheep1996'', Al loses the election and Mike assumes it's his fault. Then the results for the county where he and Steve were hiding out come in and he realizes that the total number of votes for that county exceeds the number of voters. He then sets out to fix this.
* ''Film/{{Hairspray|1988}}'' and [[Film/Hairspray2007 2007 remake]]: Amber's mother stuffs the ballots so Amber will be the lead dancer on ''The Corny Collins Show.'' Not only are there enough ''legitimate'' votes for [[spoiler: Little Inez]] that Amber loses regardless, Mrs. Turnblad sees her doing it and manages an EngineeredPublicConfession.

* There's a section about this in one of the ''Literature/{{Sten}}'' books. It gets disrupted by 'Raschid', in a rather hilarious manner. [[spoiler: 'Raschid' is actually the Eternal Emperor, and being several thousand years old, has rather more experience with politics and corrupt elections than anyone else.]]
* Done in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat For President'' by both the AntiHero and the planetary dictator he's trying to overthrow.
* ''Literature/HopeWasHere'': Hope works on the mayoral campaign for an underdog candidate. [[spoiler:After her candidate loses the election, Hope looks over a list of voters and spots the name of a curmudgeonly man who had loudly insisted that he never voted. When she goes to congratulate him on turning out for the election, he insists that he didn't. She turns up enough discrepancies like this to force the incumbent mayor to resign.]]

* When the Dark Lord decides he wants to win by election in ''{{Literature/Grunts}}'', General Ashnak and his orc marines decide to help matters along a bit, just in case the Supreme Power Of Evil can't win over the population with his speeches.

* ''Literature/PilgrennonsChildren'': In ''Pilgrennon's Beacon'', the supercomputer Cerberus submits votes from nonexistent people to keep the current government in power.

* In Series/VeronicaMars, a school election is rigged when different classrooms were given conflicting instructions on how to fill out the scan-tron sheets that were used as ballots.
* In ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'', Salem mentions that he helped [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Nixon]] get elected:
-->'''Salem:''' "A lot of dead people voted that year. Twice!"
* In one episode of ''Series/BlackadderTheThird'', Blackadder filled in for the single voter of a rotten borough and apparently placed several thousand votes for Baldrick. In the same episode he sarcastically comments on the system that allows this to happen: "Manchester. Population: 60,000. Electoral roll: 3"

* PlayedForLaughs in a ''Series/FamilyTies'' episode when a girl reveals her crush on Alex by telling him that when he ran for student council president, "I voted for you. Three hundred times. Sorry you didn't win." Later, his best friend Skippy makes the [[RunningGag exact same confession]].
* Played with in a ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' episode. They select the name of someone out of a hat to decide who has to do an unenviable task. It turns out everyone puts in [[ButtMonkey Jerry]]'s name rather than their own. Except [[TheParagon Leslie Knope]], who put in her own name... [[SubvertedTrope and several more of Jerry's]].
* This is a common accusation levied towards {{reality|Show}} {{game show}}s that rely on audience voting.
** ''Series/AmericanIdol'' is one of the most common targets of this in the US, especially due to the fact that people are indeed allowed to vote as many times as they want. A number of people have exploited this by employing "robo-calls" and "power-texting" to make thousands of votes -- completely legal under ''AI'' rules, and often balanced out by different robo-callers voting for different contestants. What pushes the show into this trope, however, is a series of controversies over the fairness of the voting, most notably an incident in the season 8 finale involving AT&T (one of ''AI'''s sponsors) that may have cost Music/AdamLambert the victory. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Idol_controversies here]] for more.
* In 2006, Creator/StephenColbert (or rather, his alter ego on ''Series/TheColbertReport'') reported that Hungary was holding an online naming poll for a new bridge, for which the then-leading entry was the "Chuck Norris bridge". He then proceeded to suggest that his fans should stuff the ballot box with "Stephen Colbert bridge". HilarityEnsued when it [[GoneHorriblyRight Went Horribly Right]] and "Stephen Colbert bridge" won with over 17 million votes -- about 7 million more than the entire population of Hungary.
** He tried again when NASA announced that it would put a particular name on a capsule intended for the International Space Station based on the number of votes. "Colbert" won in a landslide, but was denied victory. Instead, NASA shipped up a new piece of equipment, which has the acronym C.O.L.B.E.R.T.[[note]]Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill[[/note]] Stephen was mollified.

* Inverted in ''Series/{{Skins}}'' - Harriet and Doug only count the class president votes for Naomi and Crispin, knowing Cook received the most and not wanting him to win. However, Naomi secretly witnessed the decision, and when they declare her "the winner," she pulls Cook's ballots out of Harriet's bra.
* Mentioned in ''Film/CatchingTrouble'' when it appeared on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'':
-->'''Narrator:''' Don't you know you're wanted in Chicago?\\
'''Tom Servo:''' For voting twice?
* In ''Series/{{Justified}}'' the standard version is averted since the citizens of Harlan County are savvy enough that you cannot steal an election by stuffing the ballot box. Instead the candidates have to resort to other dirty tricks like bribing voters with alcohol and sexual favors, rigging debates by bribing the moderator and having the opposition disqualified by framing them for car bombings, drug dealing and nepotism.
* In season one of ''Series/{{Boss}}'' Tom Kane's chosen candidate for governor is projected to lose the primary but Kane is not going to let that happen. He starts calling in favours and making deals with local ward bosses. A massive sabotage and misinformation campaign ensues where the other candidate's campaign signs are stolen and his supporters are directed to non-existing voting locations. There probably is no actual ballot box stuffing but the effect is similar.
* In one episode of ''Series/GrangeHill'', a student helping to tally the votes in a student council election is introduced to the concept of 'spoiled ballots'. He then proceeds to destroy a large number of ballots in an attempt to grant his favoured candidate the win. He is found out because his number of spoiled ballots is so much higher than any other tallyer.
* ''Series/ThirtyRock'':
-->'''Jack''': Why should I even bother to vote? New York will go for Obama even if I voted a hundred times, instead of my usual five.
* In ''Series/{{Copper}}'', set in 1860s New York City, had one character in charge of giving out alcohol, wigs and fake names to all the 'frequent voters' to help 'Irish' Jake [=McGinnis=] win.
* In ''Series/{{Scandal}}'' a major plot point is that [[spoiler: the US Presidential]] election was stolen by hacking the control cards on voting machines. The matter is complicated by the fact that the winning candidate was not aware of the fraud and actually sees it as a personal betrayal.
* ''Series/MissionImpossible'': In "Wheels", the IMF has to prevent a case of electoral fraud in a BananaRepublic in order to ensure a fair result to the election.
* In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "Election Day", identifying the VictimOfTheWeek is complicated by the fact he was voting under a false name.
* The ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS3E19TheCemeteryVote The Cemetery Vote]]" centers around a corrupt politician who was rumored to have carried [[TitleDrop 'The Cemetery Vote']] (in other words, picked up fraud votes from people who were dead prior to the election).

* ''Music/RayStevens'': The song "Grandpa Voted Democrat" is all about voter fraud, and how a man who always voted Republican in life had his name used for a fraudulent vote for the Democrats.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Standard for elections in ''ComicStrip/TheWizardOfId''.
* Dogbert in a ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' comic:
-->"The votes are in. I've been elected to the position of supreme ruler of Earth. I won in a landslide, thanks to low voter turnout and the fact that I voted for myself many times."
* When Garry Trudeau put the question of which university [[ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}} Alex Doonesbury]] would attend to an online poll, MIT won hands down, as their students were very good at circumventing the blocks put up by Doonesbury Town Hall to flood the poll with their votes.
[[/folder]]

* The election night newsreel in ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'' shows John P. Wintergreen casting ballots for himself at more than one polling place. When he needs only four more votes to win, he casts all four of them. It's no wonder that his (unnamed) defeated opponent charges him with voter fraud in seven states.

* In ''Videogame/{{Tropico}}'', the electoral tribunal can interpret a fraction of opposition... er misprint ballots as votes in favor of "El Presidente". The fraud has some minor drawbacks but it is rarely needed outside the first game.

* Suspected vote tampering becomes motive for revenge in NonSerialMovie "Wrath of the Spider Queen" for ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''. [[spoiler:In a OnceMoreWithClarity moment, it's revealed that Grimm ''did'' stuff the ballots...to try and help the Spider Queen win]].

* While not in a political context (rather, in regards to someone getting VotedOffTheIsland), the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' episode "Basic Straining" has Harold break into the ballot box and stuff it with votes for Courtney. The reason he did this was to get RevengeByProxy against Courtney's boyfriend Duncan, who [[TheBully constantly bullied him]].

* ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'': Amber's mother stuffs the ballots so Amber will be the lead dancer on ''The Corny Collins Show.'' Not only are there enough ''legitimate'' votes for [[spoiler: Little Inez]] that Amber loses regardless, Mrs. Turnblad sees her doing it and manages an EngineeredPublicConfession.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', Fundy attempts to rig the votes for the L'Manburg Presidential Election in favour of his party, [=Coconut2020=], with approximately 120,000 fraudulent votes being supplied from the same IP address.[[note]]Note that this was done without his running mate, Niki's knowledge.[[/note]] This gets {{defied|Trope}} when the fraudulent votes are disqualified during the election in the end, as he would have otherwise won the election if the fraudulent votes weren't disqualified. [[spoiler:After the DisasterDominoes that ensued in canon, [[MemeticMutation many fans joke]] that none of the [[CerebusSyndrome much more serious arcs]] following the Elections would have happened [[ForWantOfANail had]] the content creators just allowed [=Coconut2020=] to commit voter fraud.]]

[[folder: Comics]]

* Happens in ComicBook/StrontiumDog when they announcer a random draw to see who earns the right to a special bounty. Being (mostly) amoral bounty hunters EVERYONE tries to cheat. One attempt is switching out the box for one stuffed with only their name.

-->'''Franchise/{{Popeye}}''': Tha's two milling votes an' they's only one milling people.
-->'''Blozo:''' Both sides voted often.

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

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

-->'''Leo:''' You know O'Doul and the Mayor, right?
-->'''Tom:''' I ought to, I voted for him six times last November.
-->'''Mayor:''' And that's not even the record.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

-->'''Herman:''' ''(To Grandpa)'' [[SarcasmMode Well, don't just stand there!]] Hand me the soap!

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

%%Though this is TruthInTelevision, please keep [[BanOnPolitics any political examples]] from the last 30 years of RealLife [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement out of this page]].