History Main / AllElectionsAreSeriousBusiness

* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' had two arcs where Kevin ran for office. The first was the office of "Recreation Administrator", which Kevin intended to run for just to ensure that his daughter, a [[KillerRabbit carnivorous rabbit]], could enroll in a predator-oriented youth league. Despite this being a pretty minor position (and the action itself likely not even ''requiring'' Kevin to run for office), the campaign apparently required campaign teams, rallies, campaign donors, and constant attention from the media (including front page updates) centering around the race for the position. The race quickly turns into a fight about racial purity and Kevin is actually brought down by a scandal that his wolf wife ate the wife of his opponent, a tortoise. In a ContrivedCoincidence, Kevin loses the race, but his daughter renders the results meaningless by producing the tortoise's wife, alive and bearing a half-weasel, half-tortoise child...thus forcing the tortoise to make the policy change anyway. The second election arc featured Kevin running for a school board position to roll back high-stakes testing (in this universe, the "high stakes" are a 1 in 10 chance that your child will be ''eaten alive during the test''). While a school board position is a real position with debates and a need for a real campaign, the K&K still gets a strangely disproportionate amount of media coverage compared to a real school board debate. Regardless, the arc had a more realistic expectation of what Kevin could do and when he did win, the actual process of getting his desired change through was represented as sluggish and caught up in bureaucracy. In case you're curious, high stakes testing ''did'' get dropped...because the testing industry decided to push for ''multiple'' tests instead of a single 'all or nothing' test. Kevin views this as a PyrrhicVictory.

* ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' had two arcs where Kevin ran for office. The first was the office of "Recreation Administrator", which Kevin intended to run for just to ensure that his daughter, a [[KillerRabbit carnivorous rabbit]], could enroll in a predator-oriented youth league. Despite this being a pretty minor position (and the action itself likely not even ''requiring'' Kevin to run for office), the campaign apparently required campaign teams, rallies, campaign donors, and constant attention from the media (including front page updates) centering around the race for the position. The race quickly turns into a fight about racial purity and Kevin is actually brought down by a scandal that his wolf wife ate the wife of his opponent, a tortoise. In a ContrivedCoincidence, Kevin loses the race, but his daughter renders the results meaningless by producing the tortoise's wife, alive and bearing a half-weasel, half-tortoise child...thus forcing the tortoise to make the policy change anyway. The second election arc featured Kevin running for a school board position to roll back high-stakes testing (in this universe, the "high stakes" are a 1 in 10 chance that your child will be ''eaten alive during the test''). While a school board position is a real position with debates and a need for a real campaign, the K&K still gets a strangely disproportionate amount of media coverage compared to a real school board debate. Regardless, the arc had a more realistic expectation of what Kevin could do and when he did win, the actual process of getting his desired change through was represented as sluggish and caught up in bureaucracy.

* In WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}, Doug's opponent for school treasurer was the Mayor of Bluffington's son. The Mayor threw the full weight of his influence behind his son's campaign for school treasurer, driving a ridiculous amount of public coverage to a minor election. This proved to be an example of the Mayor having a truly [[WhatAnIdiot idiotic set of priorities]], since he was so focused on helping his son win his student government election that he neglected his own campaign for reelection in the world of grownup city politics. Naturally, this cost him his position as Mayor. As a cartoon character, he could conceivably be counting on NegativeContinuity to save him from a defeat like this--but it did not and for the remainder of the series Tippy Dink was now the Mayor of Bluffington.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has the episode where Johnny and Carl run for litter commissioner - Johnny [[CasanovaWannabe trying to pick ladies with it, of course]]. Though the serious business included wacky hijinks such the inclusion of a pie as a candidate after a man answers an opinion poll with "I like pie!". Johnny win, however since he doesn't understand or care about his job in the least his first order of business is to have a huge parade in his honour that covers the city in confetti, which he's forced to clean up by those same girls he was trying to win.

* ''Film/{{Election}}'' played this for satire, both on the United States presidential elections and the amount of seriousness that other people give to student council elections. The most popular candidate in the election is the one who promises to never do anything and make sure the students never have to attend mandatory pep rallies for student council ever again. At the end of the movie ultimately no one's lives are changed significantly by the school election, because hardly anyone in the movie much cared anyways.

* In WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}, Doug's opponent for school treasurer was the Mayor of Bluffington's son, and the Mayor threw the full weight of his influence behind his son's campaign for school treasurer. This proved to be an example of the Mayor having a truly [[WhatAnIdiot idiotic set of priorities]], since he was so focused on helping his son win his student government election that he neglected his own campaign for reelection in the world of grownup city politics; and he lost his position as Mayor. As a cartoon character, he could conceivably be counting on NegativeContinuity to save him from a defeat like this--but it did not. Tippy Dink was the new Mayor of Bluffington.

* In WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}, Doug's opponent for school treasurer was the Mayor of Bluffington's son, and the Mayor threw the full weight of his influence behind his son's campaign for school treasurer. This proved to be an example of the Mayor having a truly [[WhatAnIdiot idiotic set of priorities]], since he was so focused on helping his son win his student government election that he neglected his own campaign for reelection in the world of grownup city politics; and he lost his position as Mayor. As a cartoon character, he could conceivably be counting on NegativeContinuity to save him from a defeat like this--but it did not. Tiffy Dink was the new Mayor of Bluffington.

* ''Film/{{Election}}'' played this for satire, both on the United States presidential elections and the amount of seriousness that other people give to student council elections. The most popular candidate in the election is the one who promises to never do anything and make sure the students never have to attend mandatory pep rallies for student council ever again.

* The student council election arc of ''Manga/KaguyaSamaWaKokurasetai'' has everyone take their positions a little too seriously (up to and including acts of ''industrial espionage''). Shirogane ends up looking like a giant and threatening obstacle in the race, while Kaguya strong-arms and intimidates any potential threat to Shirogane's victory.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note:in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important that the Presidential Election where one exists, as the HoS might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters.]]. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office or legislative body, depending on where the balance of power lies in the Presidential-Parliamentary spectrum [[note|in Presidential systems, the Head of State (i.e. President) is also the chief executive and the cabinet needs no legislative confidence, so the Presidential Election would be more important that the Legislative Election; in Parliamentary systems, the chief executive - in this case, the Head of Government (i.e. Prime Minister) - is drawn from the Legislature, and the Head of State has no power of their own, so the Legislative Election would be more important that the Presidential Election where one exists, as the HoS might be elected by the Legislature instead of the voters.]]. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

Many minor positions in government go unopposed, and when there actually is an election, it's very small scale. Statistically, election turnouts in countries without mandatory voting are frequently low, and few people take part in elections for anything lower than the highest executive office. Since real life student councils aren't worth much more than an extracurricular activity on your college application, real life students are largely apathetic as to who is on the ballot.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' involves an elementary election for the student council president. It's TheBully Diamond Tiara versus Pipsqueak. The Cutie Mark Crusaders view Diamond winning as a negative thing because she is bullies everyone and it will only make the situation worse. Diamond Tiara views losing as not being an option because it would mean she's failed at her Special Talent [[spoiler:and she would shame her emotionally abusive mother who puts winning and reputation over everything]].

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl is seen betting on the outcome of a small African country's presidential election, which is apparently, said election is being broadcast internationally.

* ''ComicStrip/JudgeParker'' features a storyline in which Randy Parker runs for county judge. The media is obsessed with him and he even has an opponent that gets reporters to show up as he's ''filing his intent to run''. Said opponent attempts to imply in newspaper-friendly terms that Randy Parker "[[HoYay isn't the marrying kind]]", but is downed before the election ever begins because his alcoholic wife attacked one of the reporters. The only realistic element is that this was the ''only'' opponent in the election, letting Randy win by running unopposed.

* On ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'', Earl is seen betting on the outcome of a presidential election in a small African country. Apparently, said election is being broadcast internationally.

* In the ''Series/BlackMirror'' season two episode "[[Series/BlackMirrorSeriesTwo The Waldo Moment]]", comedian/CGI puppeteer Jamie Salter is pushed into running in a by-election as Waldo, the profane character he portrays. Everybody on all sides regards the outcome as a given, they all know the Conservative party is going to win, but the Labor candidate recognizes that she will get her name out in the press for the ''next'' election, and Waldo become an internet sensation. The entire election degenerates into a complete media farce. Played with, however, in that the Conservative candidate -- [[{{Jerkass}} while a bit of a pompous dick]] -- [[JerkassHasAPoint is not entirely wrong]] to point out that while this might be a small by-election, Waldo's antics are making a mockery of and potentially undermining democracy, thus making it an ''actual'' serious business.

* Averted in political sciences that employ the term of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-order_election second-order elections]] for elections where's supposedly less at stake and wherein voting behavior actually differs considerably from first-order elections which are mostly national legislative and presidential elections.

--> Vote or die, motherfucker, motherfucker, vote or die!//
Rock the vote or else I'm gonna stick a knife through your eye.//
Democracy is founded on one simple rule!//
Get out there and vote or I will motherfucking kill you!

--> Rock the vote or else I'm gonna stick a knife through your eye.//
--> Democracy is founded on one simple rule!//
--> Get out there and vote or I will motherfucking kill you!

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' had elections for dog catcher between Rocko (who wants more fair treatment for the dogs) and Ed Bighead (who is afraid that Rocko would let the town go to the dogs, literally). Through mudslinging tactics and an image makeover (basically adding shoulder pads on him), Ed wins the election, only thanks to new legislation, the job of dog catcher gets reduced to "glorified pooper-scooper".

--> Vote or die, motherfucker, motherfucker, vote or die!
--> Rock the vote or else I'm gonna stick a knife through your eye.
--> Democracy is founded on one simple rule!
--> Get out there and vote or I will motherfucking kill you.

* PlayedWith on the ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode Intro to Political Science. While Jeff and Annie treat it seriously, with Jeff using the style over substance of real politicians while Annie is the only person in the room with ideas, no one else does. After Annie defeats Jeff by dragging out an embarrassing video of him and dropping out herself as she felt bad about it, the election comes down to Leonard blowing rasberries and Magnitude saying Pop Pop to everything. The winner is South Park with seven out of eleven votes.

* A second-season episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' deals with the midterm congressional elections which actually ''are'' important, but President Bartlet instead obsesses over a race in his hometown in New Hampshire where the conservative he beat in his very first election to the House of Representatives is running for a school board seat. He goes as far as having polling done and wants to comment about it to the press before CJ talks him down.

* In the ''Series/BlackMirror'' season two episode "[[Series/BlackMirrorSeriesTwo The Waldo Moment]]", comedian/CGI puppeteer Jamie Salter is pushed into running in a by-election as Waldo, the profane character he portrays. Everybody on all sides regards the outcome as a given, they all know the Conservative party is going to win, but the Labor candidate recognizes that she will get her name out in the press for the ''next'' election, and Waldo become an internet sensation. The entire election degenerates into a complete media farce.

* A second-season episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'' deals with the midterm congressional elections which actually ''are'' important, but President Bartlet instead obsesses over a race in his hometown in New Hampshire where the conservative he beat in his very first election to the House of Representatives is running for a school board seat. He goes as far as having polling done and wants to comment about it to the press before CJ talks him down. '

%%* Played very straight in "The Casual Vacancy".

* Subverted in Literature/TheBelgariad: ''Nobody'' takes the Sendarian election seriously, least of all the candidates. Everyone thinks it is a ridiculous way to choose a king, and they ends up with a dynasty of quite good rulers who don't take themselves too seriously. Further details: The election requires that a candidate have a simple majority of the popular vote. Unfortunately, there are 724 candidates on the first ballot. Rather than have a runoff election between a fixed number of the more popular candidates, the Sendarians simply have another election, with every candidate who didn't choose to withdraw still on the ballot. This process repeats for 6 years and 22 ballots, ultimately resulting in the election of King Fundor the Magnificent, a rutabaga farmer who has been nominated by his neighbors, has not spent a single moment in those six years actively campaigning, and who honestly thought that they had pulled him off the ballot years before.

* ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' has the episode where Johnny and Carl run for litter commissioner - Johnny [[CasanovaWannabe trying to pick ladies with it, of course]]. Though the serious business included WackyHijinks such the inclusion of a pie as a candidate after a man answers an opinion poll with "I like pie!". Johnny win, however since he doesn't understand or care about his job in the least his first order of business is to have a huge parade in his honour that covers the city in confetti, which he's forced to clean up by those same girls he was trying to win.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had Frankie tired of how Herriman ran the home, so she decided to run for the job. Bloo joins the campaign because - well, [[AttentionWhore just because.]] Herriman, realizing that he couldn't win against Frankie on his own, makes a deal with Bloo to give up the race and become his campaign manager, and together launch a vicious smear campaign against Frankie. The election results with [[spoiler:Frankie winning, but then giving the job back to Herriman after seeing him miserable as a supermarket bag boy. THe pay being less than her old job and the bonus being carrots helped.]]