History Main / EasilyElected

* A number of ''dogs'' hold office of mayor in the United States, including Mayor Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II of Idyllwild, California, and Mayor Duke of Cormorant, Minnesota. In both cases they are "mayors" of unincorporated towns (i.e., towns with no local government), and said animals were elected as part of fundraising campaigns. That said, they do a better job than a lot of ''human'' mayors. Anchorage, Alaska, also has an honorary mayor position held by Mayor Stubbs the Cat. He did a pretty good job too, but ''was'' attacked by a (presumably jealous) dog in 2013 so not everyone's a fan.

* A number of ''dogs'' hold office of mayor in the United States, including Mayor Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II of Idyllwild, California, and Mayor Duke of Cormorant, Minnesota. In both cases they are "mayors" of unincorporated towns (i.e., towns with no local government), and said animals were elected as part of fundraising campaigns. That said, they do a better job than a lot of ''human'' mayors. Anchorage, Alaska, also has an ''honorary'' mayor position held by Mayor Stubbs the Cat, who was originally elected as a form of protest from residents who didn't like the actual mayoral candidates -- he does a pretty good job too, but ''was'' attacked by a (presumably jealous) dog in 2013 so not everyone's a fan.

[[folder:Animation]]
* ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'': In "[[Recap/SimpleSamosaEpisode75MayorGaayab Mayor Gaayab]]", absolutely none of the replacements for Chatpata Nagar's mayor are even given an election to determine who should be mayor, so everyone simply sits on the mayor's chair and declares themselves leader. One of them, Cham Cham, starts to act like a despotic king and renames the city "[[{{Egopolis}} Cham Cham Nagar]]" the moment he takes the helm, immediately proving himself to be a bad candidate for the elections a real-life town or country would have; unsurprisingly, he's overthrown.
[[/folder]]

* In the backstory of ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', Sendaria's attempts to create a democracy got off to a rough start, as they allowed anyone to run for the throne, and everyone was given one vote. The first election took ''seven years'' and ultimately crowned a rutabaga farmer who had long since forgotten he was on the ballot. Nonetheless, he was TheGoodKing.

-->'''Alan Probe:''' Ha! Listen... grandson. [[BellisariosMaxim We could sit here and poke holes in the plot all night...]]

-->'''Alan Probe:''' ...but I think I'd rather we went and visited some of our family, and started rebuilding some bridges! Whaddya say?

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the cutscene after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted murderer was able to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison. In response, Alan Probe tells Bradley not to think much about such a "PlotHole".

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the cutscene after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted murderer was able to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison. In response, Alan tells Bradley to not think much about such a "PlotHole".

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the cutscene after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted murderer was able to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the cutscene after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer was able to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

-->'''Bradley:''' I had no idea the president was the bad guy! I mean, how does a criminal imprisoned for MURDER rampage manage to get out of jail, disguise his identity, and then run for, and become, president of the United States?

-->'''Alan:''' Ha! Listen... grandson. [[BellisariosMaxim We could sit here and poke holes in the plot all night...]]

-->'''Alan:''' ...but I think I'd rather we went and visited some of our family, and started rebuilding some bridges! Whaddya say?

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': {{Zigzagged|Trope}} in "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E14TheStanchurianCandidate The Stanchurian Candidate]]". The Town Charter states that anyone is a viable candidate for mayor provided that they "[[LoonyLaws can cast a shadow, count to ten and throw their hat into the provided ring]]." However, despite [[AntiHero Stan Pines]] getting the most votes, his lengthy [[ConMan criminal record]] leads to his disqualification. After Stan is disqualified from being mayor due to his criminal record, Tyler Cutebiker is made mayor by default, as he was the only candidate to actually fill out the paperwork. This is in spite of him not actually having done any campaigning or having any known qualifications.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Harley Quinn|2019}}'': In season three, the ''Joker'' -- one of the world's most feared supervillains who managed to take over Gotham City back in season one -- becomes the mayor. While he has reformed, he should still have a criminal record, which is usually enough to disqualify someone from running.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'': In "Impeach Fuzz", Fuzzy Lumpkins is elected mayor of Townsville while Mayor Mayor is busy launching a PR blitz ([[PoliticiansKissBabies kissing babies]], meeting voters, etc.), despite Fuzzy not even knowing he was in the running until he sees a newspaper that declared his victory.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the cutscene after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer managed to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] after [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer managed to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

-->'''Alan:''' [[BellisariosMaxim "We could sit here and poke holes in the plot all night..."]].

-->'''Alan:'''...but I think I'd rather we went and visited some of our family, and started rebuilding some bridges! Whaddya say?

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] After [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer managed to win the US presidential election while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] After [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer managed to get elected as the US president while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] After [[BigBad Dwayne Pipe]]'s final surgery in ''[[VideoGame/AmateurSurgeon Amateur Surgeon 2]]''. Bradley questions how a convicted mass murderer managed to get elected president while disguised, despite having already been arrested once and become one of the most wanted criminals after he escaped prison.

Fiction tends to have rather lax ideas on how authority and leadership structures work. Just any people can [[WhatsUpKingDude come up to Fictionland's sovereign for a nice chat]], and their supposedly formal governmental bodies have little more structure [[MildlyMilitary than a group of friends hanging out in uniforms]]. Some stories, however, take things even further by having such a careless hierarchical system that any random civilian -- or [[ExaggeratedTrope even]] non-citizens, animals, and/or [[InanimateCompetitor inanimate objects]] -- can find themselves in the highest position of authority due to a clerical mistake, the nation's own LoonyLaws on election, or some other weird technicality. Often, the elected won't even know about their inexplicable rise to power until after everyone else does.

* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf'': Upon arriving in their town, the first player is instantly named the mayor by Isabelle and the other residents. The dialogue options all express confusion indicating that the player never ran for the position -- not to mention that they'd never even ''been'' to the town, let alone lived there, prior to that conversation.

-->--[[https://mashable.com/article/dog-reelected-as-mayor An article]] about Duke the Great Pyrenees dog, mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota, USA.

* Averted when a school board election was lost when the uncontested candidate [[https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2015/09/10/man-loses-election-when-nobody-votes-including-himself/72008048/ did not receive a single vote, even from himself]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': {{Downplayed|Trope}}. In one episode of season 5, 17-year-old Leni Loud tries to run for mayor. Although she doesn't win, the fact that someone so young and so [[TheDitz ditzy]] as her is even allowed to become a candidate is impossible in real life.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|1998}}'': In "Impeach Fuzz", Fuzzy Lumpkin is elected the mayor of Townsville while Mayor Mayor is busy launching a PR blitz ([[PoliticiansKissBabies kissing babies]], meeting voters, etc.). This is despite Fuzzy not even knowing he was in the running until he sees a newspaper that declared his victory.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]", the Fourth Doctor is elected as Lord President of Gallifrey -- despite having no experience as a politician, no desire to govern and the fact he was accused of murdering the previous president.

* On ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Emma gets elected town sheriff in the first season simply because she is the only one who wants to replace the previous sheriff after he dies. There is no official election held nor are her qualifications as to if she's capable of the job, which mainly consist of being a bail bondswoman previously, are even questioned. Granted, this can partially be explained away by the town being a construct of fairy tale magic, but you'd think the mayor would at least ask for an ''interview'' before just handing her the job.