Basic Trope: A character wins an election through fraudulent extra voting.
- Straight: Alice is elected Mayor of Tropesville over Bob because Alice's campaign cast extra votes under the names of dead people, children, or both.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice wins solely because of fake votes; the polls projected Bob to win a Landslide Election and she couldn't have won legitimately.
- Every elected official from Tropesville was elected through ballot stuffing, whether they are in the municipal, provincial/state, or federal government.
- Nobody voted for Alice at all. Every single vote for her was fake, and she still managed to win.
- Downplayed:
- Bob demands a recount, but Alice still wins after the fake votes are eliminated.
- Alice and Bob are running for Student Council President.
- Alice pays some non-voters to vote for her instead of staying home as they would have done, which gives her the margin of her victory.
- Justified: The Powers That Be don't want Bob to win. For example, Alice already has many connections in the Tropesville government, while Bob is an outsider. Or in a school election, Alice is a responsible student who the staff know will get the job done, while Bob is a slacker or troublemaker.
- Inverted:
- Alice beats Bob by suppressing legitimate votes for him.
- For some reason, Alice rigs the election so that Bob will win.
- Subverted:
- When Alice is unexpectedly elected mayor, Bob's campaign accuses Alice's of voter fraud. However, a long investigation discovers that no such fraud occurred. Alice supporters just turned up in larger numbers than expected, or Bob supporters stayed home.
- Alice and Bob each expect the other's campaign to rig the election. Neither campaign does.
- Double Subverted:
- A lengthy investigation into alleged voter fraud in Alice's campaign ends up concluding that no fraud occurred ... only because Alice's campaign hid the evidence extremely well. Alternatively, the investigators are on Alice's side.
- A lengthy investigation into alleged voter fraud in Alice's campaign ends up concluding that no fraud occurred … as the alleged 'fraud' was committed by computer error.
- It turns out that Bob's campaign was the one committing voter fraud, and they blamed Alice's campaign to divert attention from their own shady behavior.
- A freelancer, Charlie, rigs the election for Bob.
- Parodied:
- All extra votes are under the same name, but Alice's fraud is never discovered.
- Alice gives herself a million extra votes even though Tropesville has only 5000 legal voters. She's shocked when her fraud is discovered.
- Alice gives herself 1000 extra votes under her own name.
- Multiple votes for Alice are cast in the name of an In-Universe celebrity who doesn't live in Tropesville, endorsed Bob, or both.
- Alice is declared elected because she engaged in ballot-stuffing.
- Alice openly stuffs a bunch of scraps of paper with her name scribbled with crayons into the ballot box, while loudly yelling "screw democracy!".
- Alice runs her nation as a dictator. Every year she has a mock election, everyone votes for the other "candidate" only for Alice to shred the votes in front of there faces.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Alice makes a plan to stuff the ballot box. Bob gets wind of this and makes his own plan. Then Alice calls off her fraud plan, but Bob doesn't call off his until the start of just before the early-voting period — by which time Alice has called hers back on and enlisted help from Carol to do more.
- Alice appears to have the boxes stuffed, but further investigation reveals Bob was the one who benefited from voter fraud, except Alice rigged the election in favor of Bob as a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
- Averted: No illegal votes are cast.
- Enforced: "We need Alice to win the election for the plot's sake, but her campaign is so horrendous that no one in the right mind would vote for her. Let's have her resort to fraud."
- Lampshaded: "Yes, I rigged the election so I'd win. Every smart politician does it."
- Invoked: Alice knows that she's going to lose, so she stuffs the ballots.
- Exploited:
- When Bob hears about Alice's fraud, he turns the tables by stuffing the ballots even more and/or suppressing the votes for Alice.
- When Bob hears about Alice's fraud, he exposes her fraud and destroys her career.
- Defied:
- Voter identification and other precautions are in place to prevent voter fraud.
- Alice decides that she would rather lose the election than win fraudulently.
- Bob and his supporters demand a recount, and make it very clear that they won't take no for an answer.
- Discussed: "I've been falsely accused! I promise you I didn't rig anything."
- Conversed: People who voted for Alice illegally laugh about it later, saying, "That was even easier than it looked on that TV show."
- Implied: All characters who are shown support Bob, and yet Alice wins the election.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is revealed to be a fraud. She's removed from office and her career is ruined.
- Alternatively, Alice runs a People's Republic of Tyranny and keeps herself in control through ballot stuffing. This is also the only way she stays in power.
- Reconstructed: Alice has Vetinari Job Security, so she is reinstated before things go too far downhill.
- Played for Laughs: Both Alice and Bob give themselves blatantly fraudulent votes.
- Played for Drama: Bob is a popular candidate who aspires to be a President Evil. Alice stuffs the ballots to keep him out of office.
Back to Vote Early, Vote Often
