History Main / VoteEarlyVoteOften

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': While running for mayor stuffing the ballot box is one of the first things Grunkle Stan does, though since Gravity Falls uses birdseed instead of paper ballots it has no impact on the results whatsoever.

* In ''Film/WendellAndWild'', the Klaxons plan to get their private prison approved by literally using the dead Old Guard as voters in favor of it. When the vote happens, this is represented by the revived members strolling in, casting their vote, and immediately leaving.

* ''Film/YogiBearAndTheMagicalFlightOfTheSpruceGoose'': When the heroes vote over rescuing Dread Baron and Mumbly or [[RefuseToRescueTheDisliked not]], each side gets 8 votes in spite of there being only 10 voters.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DetectiveBogey'', the mexican restaurant owner mentions the reason the mayor is always re-elected is that his brother-in-law is in charge of counting the votes.

** A common tactic was to gather bearded men on election day, pay them to vote the candidate, shave their beard off, have them vote again, then shave their mustache off, and send them go back to vote a third time.

* It's well known that several PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny countries sometimes utilized this to ensure that someone won the election.
** UsefulNotes/JosefStalin once mentioned that it matters not who votes in an election, but rather, it matters who counts the votes when commanding his officers to do an implied instance of stuffing the ballot boxes (of course, this only applied in the Eastern European countries he was taking control of-in the Soviet Union they only allowed Communist candidates to begin with).

** Another factor in online voting is that it is easy to set up bots and scripts to vote for one entry over the other. Turning back to politics, this is why most real polling institutions in the United States do not conduct polls over the internet.

** It got even more ridiculous in 2016, when Arizona Coyotes left winger John Scott, who had only appeared in 11 games that season, and had all of 5 goals in his NHL career, was the top vote-getter and named captain of the Pacific Division team. Almost immediately after he was announced as an All-Star, the Coyotes traded him to Montreal, and the Canadiens immediately assigned him to the minor leagues, but the NHL chose to honor the vote, and Scott, officially representing no team, scored two goals and was named [=MVP=].

** In fact, for practically the entire history of Philippine elections (even back into the colonial era proper, when limited local franchises existed), election fraud has always been a useful accusation against one's opponents when running for office, irregardless of whether it actually happened. It's even spawned specific terminologies and idioms, e.g., ''lutong Macao'' (literally, "cooked Macau-style", i.e., a previously-fixed ForegoneConclusion) or just ''niluto'' ("cooked", i.e., rigged), ''dagdag-bawas'' ("adding and subtracting", i.e., shifting good poll stats to preferred candidates), and so on.
* The 2018 Russian election, in which UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin won reelection by 75% of the vote, has two major examples caught by news agencies. In recent years, elections under Putin are sham as dissidents are either jailed and/or [[DeadlyEuphemism rubbed off]]. Voter intimidation and pro-Putin coverage by state-owned media also played a role.
** [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Guardian]] obtained CCTV footage of poll workers [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/mar/19/russian-election-footage-appears-to-show-vote-rigging-video allegedly stuffing the ballot boxes]].
** Meanwhile, Reuters reporters in the Russian town of Ust-Djeguta [[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-backstory-russiaelection/counting-votes-in-russias-presidential-election-idUSKBN1GY1BM recorded 17 different people casting multiple ballots]]. Russian officials seemed open [[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-election-carousel-commission/russia-may-annul-election-results-at-two-polling-stations-officials-idUSKBN1GY2QY to nullifying the votes from those two stations in light of this news]], but [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught only after the initial denial]] of "[[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-election-carousel-insight/identical-twins-and-carousels-russias-fairground-election-idUSKBN1GX1TC They could be twins]]" from an election official.

* This isn't uncommon on Rotten Tomatoes. A good example is the film ''Film/{{Gotti}}'', which has a 0% critic score and a 50% audience score. Straightforward case of CriticalDissonance, right? Except ''Gotti'' was a BoxOfficeBomb that made around four million, yet it has more user ratings than ''Film/Halloween2018'' - a movie that made over ''fifty times as much''. Between being heavily pushed by the ailing company [=MoviePass=] and starring Scientology golden boy Creator/JohnTravolta, it's really not hard to guess what's going on there.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten_and_pocket_boroughs "Rotten boroughs" and "pocket boroughs"]] were a thing in England for centuries. Due to Parliamentary constituency maps not being redrawn very often, it was possible for some very densely populated regions to have few representatives and some lightly densely populated regions to have many, thanks to demographic shifts over the years. This could result in once important regions now having a seat but so few voters that a candidate buying their office is quite possible (The ''Blackadder'' example in the TV section is an exaggeration, not a total fabrication). The rules have since been changed to have more regular redistricting to limit the likelihood of this.

* The inverse of this is voter suppression, wherein voters are prevented from voting in some sort of way, whether by outright intimidation, misdirection, ballot restriction, stringent registration efforts, making sure they aren't able to vote on time, or some other means. This can also come about unintentionally. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Canadian_federal_election_voter_suppression_scandal Here's]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_efforts_to_restrict_voting_following_the_2020_presidential_election a]] [[https://insidestory.org.au/court-by-surprise-the-high-court-upholds-voting-rights/ few]] [[https://doi.org/10.1163%2F24688800-00302010 examples]].

* ''Boardwalk Empire'' based its main character, Nucky Thompson, on real-life Atlantic City politician Nucky Johnson, who was effectively that city's version of Boss Tweed.

* The Election Day [[TheCaper heist]] in ''VideoGame/{{Payday2}}'' is about sneaking inside a warehouse to hack voting machine to swing the votes the way a CorruptPolitician wants you to. [[StartsStealthilyEndsLoudly Plan B]] if you get spotted has you instead rig the vote in favor of the other candidate, which given the obvious battle that happens during Plan B, would have the CorruptPolitician you are helping secure a DisqualificationInducedVictory..

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', after the incredibly-elderly Mayor Befufflefumpter died, it was a race between Grunkle Stan and Bud Gleeful (who of course was being manipulated by his son [[DiscOneFinalBoss Gideon]], who was imprisoned at the time). But thanks to Stan's long rapsheet, Gideon's plan being foiled by Stan, Dipper and Mabel, and ''neither'' candidate having filed the proper paperwork, [[RecurringExtra Tyler Cutebiker]] [[DarkHorseVictory ends up becoming mayor]].

* Inverted in the first ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie where it's shown that the reason Al Gore lost the 2000 election was because Bender, [[ItsALongStory in his hunt for Fry]], blew up the box containing all his votes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', after the incredibly-elderly Mayor Befufflefumpter died, it was a race between Grunkle Stan and Bud Gleeful (who of course was being manipulated by his son [[DiscOneFinalBoss Gideon]], who was imprisoned at the time). But thanks to Stan's long rapsheet, Gideon's plan being foiled by Stan, Dipper and Mabel, and ''neither'' candidate having filed the proper paperwork, [[RecurringExtra Tyler Cutebiker]] [[DarkHorseVictory ends up becoming mayor]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', Randall stuffs his name into the ballot box for the "Principal for a Day" contest, and when the winner is announced he starts giving a speech. But as it transpires, Principal Prickly rigged it so ''[[TheLeader TJ]]'' would win, instead, much to everybody's shock.
* Eddy in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' tries it when he runs for "king of the cul-de-sac", but Edd anticipated that and replaces the real ballot box with a fake one.
* An episode of [=DiC=]'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Care Bears|1980s}}'' has Professor Coldheart employing this tactic to win the Mayor-for-a-Day election, promising [[AnarchyIsChaos "a holiday for rules"]].
* 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]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Harvey Dent, while running for office of DA, reminds Gothamites, to "vote early, vote often. Just in different elections."

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DetectiveBogey'', the mexican restaurant owner mentions the reason the mayor is always re-elected is that his brother-in-law is in charge of counting the votes.
* ''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]].

* The 2018 Russian election, in which UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin won reelection by 75% of the vote, has two major examples caught by news agencies. In recent years, elections under Putin are largely sham elections as dissidents are either jailed and/or [[DeadlyEuphemism rubbed off]]. Voter intimidation and pro-Putin coverage by the state-controlled media also played a role.
** [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Guardian]] obtained CCTV footage of poll-workers [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/mar/19/russian-election-footage-appears-to-show-vote-rigging-video allegedly stuffing the ballot boxes]].

* 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. This gets {{defied}} 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.

* The 2018 Russian election, in which UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin won reelection by 75% of the vote, has two major examples caught by news agencies.

* The inverse of this is voter suppression, wherein voters are prevented from voting in some sort of way, whether by intimidation, misdirection, ballot restriction, stringent registration efforts, making sure they aren't able to vote on time, or some other means. This can also come about unintentionally. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Canadian_federal_election_voter_suppression_scandal Here's]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_efforts_to_restrict_voting_following_the_2020_presidential_election a]] [[https://insidestory.org.au/court-by-surprise-the-high-court-upholds-voting-rights/ few]] [[https://doi.org/10.1163%2F24688800-00302010 examples]].

* "Rotten Boroughs" and "Pocket Boroughs" were a thing in England for centuries. Due to Parliamentary constituency maps not being redrawn very often, it was possible for some very densely populated regions to have few representatives and some lightly densely populated regions to have many, thanks to demographic shifts over the years. This could result in once important regions now having a seat but so few voters that a candidate buying their office is quite possible (The ''Blackadder'' example in the TV section is an exaggeration, not a total fabrication). The rules have since been changed to have more regular redistricting to limit the likelihood of this.

* The 2018 Russian election, in which Vladimir Putin won reelection by 75% of the vote, has two major examples caught by news agencies.

* In the United States, voter fraud is [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/?utm_term=.760ad11d0395 very rare]] but has become a major rallying cry for the Republican Party, particularly in Main/TheNewTens as justification for strict voter ID laws.
** The 2018 midterm election had a high-profile case in North Carolina's ninth district where absentee ballots were meddled with in various ways to favor the Republican candidate.
** Trump also caused a bit of a stir two months before the 2020 presidential election when he, an ardent detractor of mail-in voting, urged mail-in voters to also cast their ballot at their election office to make sure their vote was properly counted. Though legally sound, detractors criticized Trump's approach as a veiled attempt to get Republican voters to vote twice.
** In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump and several of his allies have claimed that UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's victory was only due to rampant voter fraud, which has been derided by election officials and legal experts as hogwash. Trump's efforts to flip the results via the courts failed miserably as all of the 60+ lawsuits his legal team filed were [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolous]] and lacked standing.

* In the United States, voter fraud is [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/?utm_term=.760ad11d0395 very rare]] but has become a major rallying cry for the Republican Party, particularly in Main/TheNewTens as justification for strict voter ID laws. UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump has made sweeping accusations against Democrats, from claiming that millions of illegal immigrants voted against him in California in 2016, to claiming people voted multiple times via donning disguises in the 2018 midterm elections. That election also had a high-profile case in North Carolina's ninth district where absentee ballots were meddled with in various ways to favor the Republican candidate.

* When Garry Trudeau put the question of which university [[Comic/{{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.

** In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump and several of his allies have claimed that UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's victory was only due to rampant voter fraud.

** Some of the most-reported and most blatant cases of Philippine electoral fraud on a nationwide scale occurred in the 1949 general election, when the newly-formed Liberal Party cheated massively to assure wins at the polls. It was said that in many provinces, "the birds, the trees, and the dead voted" alongside the living and eligible (and human). [[note]]Meanwhile, while the dead voted, ''living'' voters were as often killed in the course of the campaign—the 1949 election was also notoriously violent.[[/note]] Then-Philippine President (and Liberal Party member) Elpidio Quirino was later defeated in 1953 by his then-Defence Secretary Ramon Magsaysay[[note]]who was originally Liberal too, but turncoated to the opposition Nacionalista Party to run against him[[/note]], whose campaign jingles directly invoked the spectre of election fraud, making the case that Magsaysay's own election would be clean and fair. (Of course, FromACertainPointOfView, since no less than the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) literally backed Magsaysay's own election, one could argue ''Magsaysay was as guilty of electoral fraud as the rest of them''.[[note]]Not to mention the evidence that Magsaysay was totally not above coming to power via MilitaryCoup in case he lost the 1953 election. The CIA was, in fact, willing to help him that far.[[/note]])

* In ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' out of fears that he'd lead them to disaster, President Roslin attempts to prevent Baltar from winning the fleet's first (and only) election by replacing the ballots from one ship with fakes. She gets caught due to a typo, on the original ballots but not on the fakes, and is forced to step down. [[spoiler: Her fears turn out to be justified.]]

** Meanwhile, Democrats typically blame their losses on the inverse of this, voter suppression, claiming that they didn't get as many votes as they should have because voters were intimidated, dropped from rolls, or otherwise prevented from voting, for reasons that always seem to boil down to racism.