The Weirdest Elections In History
The election is a proud democratic tradition, one in which the populace is able to cast a vote and decide on their preferred candidate. Or, at least, that's the idea.
While plenty of elections around the world have gone off without a hitch, elections also have a way of becoming tense, weird affairs. Whether they're taking place stateside or elsewhere in the world, elections can be a showcase for some of humanity's worst and strangest impulses. Here are a few of the weirder ones that have ever happened.
George Washington won it all in 1788.
Everyone knows that George Washington was a Founding Father and was subsequently elected as the first president of the United States. While Washington was surely worthy of the honor, the circumstances of his election were a little odd.
Because the young country was just finding its footing, the first election featured no parties and only one candidate: George Washington. That's right: Washington ran unopposed and, as such, was able to capture 100 percent of the Electoral College vote. There was a tighter race for Vice President, with John Adams beating out ten other candidates.
The grudge match of 1800 led to a duel.
Thomas Jefferson ran against John Adams in the 1800 U.S. election, a battle that got nasty and ended in a tie. While Congress would settle the debate, Jefferson's running mate Aaron Burr got into a heated rivalry with treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, a man who already disliked Burr.
While the Jefferson/Burr ticket wound up victorious, the rivalry between Burr and Hamilton got so heated over the first term of the presidency that they eventually decided to have a duel. Burr (who was the sitting vice president at the time) killed Hamilton in the duel.
In 2000, hanging chads were on everyone's mind.
Al Gore and George W. Bush proved in 2000 that everything comes down to Florida. In their ultra-close election, some networks even declared Gore the victor, with others saying Bush had won.
In the end, the difference came down to a razor-thin margin of 327 votes, out of a total of almost six million. One of the major points of contention was hanging chads — the tiny pieces of paper that are supposed to be punched out by voting machines, but sometimes stay in place and skew the results. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that Bush would be president.
Electroshock therapy bounced a VP from the race.
Senator George McGovern ran against Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, and McGovern strategically decided to go with Thomas Eagleton as his running mate as a way to secure the Catholic vote.
However, Eagleton had a secret: He'd received electroshock therapy repeatedly in the past to deal with depression. While this might not seem like a big deal nowadays, it was seen as a liability. Just a couple of weeks after he was selected, Eagleton dropped out of the race. This left McGovern scrambling and led to a decisive victory for Nixon at the polls.
TV debates were still new in 1960.
Nowadays, televised debates are a way for candidates to showcase their policies, and also a way to look good (or bad) for TV cameras. But in 1960, this was still a new concept, and John F. Kennedy went toe to toe with Richard Nixon in the first televised U.S. presidential debate.
Nixon was feeling sick and refused to wear makeup for the cameras, while JFK came off as cool, charming, and collected. The next day, the only thing that seemed to matter was the contrast between the two. In the end, JFK scored the election win.
Dewey defeats Truman?
One of the most famous media gaffes in U.S. history came about as a result of the 1948 U.S. election, which pitted incumbent Harry Truman against New York Governor Thomas Dewey. It was believed that Dewey had the election in the bag, and events leading up to election day seemingly solidified this, with a Gallup poll giving Dewey a substantial lead.
The Chicago Daily Tribune was forced to publish its morning edition earlier than usual thanks to a printers' strike, and the paper decided to call the election for Dewey. It was this edition of the paper that Truman triumphantly brandished when he eventually scored the surprise win.
That time a prisoner ran for president.
Union leader Eugene Debs was an enormously popular figure in the early 20th century, and he helped turn the Socialist Party of America into a viable third party. In 1912, he was able to secure six percent of the popular vote, an impressive figure for a third party.
He ran for president for the fifth time in 1920, but this time he did so from prison. He was incarcerated because of an anti-war speech he'd delivered a couple of years earlier towards the end of World War I. While he didn't win the presidency, the prisoner was able to get nearly a million votes.
Backroom dealings secured the 1876 election.
A series of odd events led to Rutherford Hayes winning the 1876 election, even though his Democrat opponent Samuel Tilden had more votes. Because Tilden was one Electoral College vote away from officially winning, a nasty dispute arose.
A coalition of four Southern states contested the results, and the matter was referred to a panel of seven Democrats and eight Republicans. Unsurprisingly, the panel wanted Hayes to win — and the Democrats eventually conceded this in exchange for Hayes removing federal troops from Southern states. It was a major step back for post-Reconstruction civil rights.
A dead candidate received plenty of votes in 1872.
Democrat Horace Greeley went up against Ulysses S. Grant in the 1872 election, one that got interesting even though Grant started out as the favorite. Some Republicans got sick of Grant and switched sides to support Greeley.
This led to a groundswell of support for Greeley, but Greeley likely didn't care. He stopped campaigning early to take care of his sick wife and then fell ill himself. He died before the Electoral College cast their ballots, and the dead candidate won 44 percent of the popular vote.
1860 tore the country in half.
The Democrats were the dominant party in the mid-19th century, but in 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the vote in a landslide. There was trouble brewing in the background, with discord over the Supreme Court's decision to legalize slavery through the Dred Scott case.
This created a schism within the Democratic party, with some supporting slavery and others opposing it. It was only a few weeks after the election that South Carolina seceded from the Union, which led to more secession in the South, and eventually the outbreak of the Civil War.
Casting ballots with marbles.
Because literacy levels in the African nation of Gambia have traditionally been quite low, the country has decided on an unorthodox way to let citizens vote: By casting marbles rather than ballots.
The system is explained at the polling station, and each voter throws their marble into a drum representing their desired candidate. This system has been in place for decades now, though there's some chatter that Gambia may switch to a more conventional system in the near future.
France needs the approval of mayors.
The role of the mayor is often little more than a ceremonial one, with city councils and higher levels of government actually having more control. But in France, mayors can help decide who the next president will be.
That's because before anyone runs for president, they'll need endorsements from hundreds of local mayors. This has led to allegations that the process is undemocratic because it implicitly leads to backroom deals and unofficial handshake agreements.
Lebanon splits the religious difference.
To ensure that the country's major religious groups all have a place at the table, Lebanon divides the balance of power between Christians and Muslims in their national parliament. It all stems back to an agreement made between the two religious groups in 1943.
Not only does the parliament need to be a 50/50 split, but there are more specifics when it comes to other positions. The Prime Minister needs to be a Sunni Muslim, the President must be a Maronite Christian, and the parliamentary speaker needs to be a Shiite Muslim.
Yes, North Korea is 'democratic.'
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea must be democratic, right? After all, it's in their name! Well, as we all know, North Korea is actually a dictatorship — but they attempt to earn this democratic standing with elections.
Because North Koreans are legally required to vote, voter turnout generally hovers between 99 and 100 percent. Of course, everyone knows who they're supposed to vote for: The only name on the ballot, Kim Jong-un. This doesn't leave any room for opposition, but it is technically an election of sorts.
The time Teddy Roosevelt came back.
Theodore Roosevelt was a former president by 1912, spending his time on various safaris and flights of leisure. But his progressivism was challenged by his successor, William Howard Taft — and this displeased Roosevelt enough that he decided to throw his hat back in the ring.
Things got so heated that Roosevelt was shot while delivering a speech (he finished the speech). The rivalry between Roosevelt and Taft split the Republican vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to take the win.
James Garfield was in the right place at the right time.
In 1880, the U.S. Republican National Convention was tasked with picking their presidential nominee. In the midst of widespread infighting and no clear nominee, a little-known U.S. Representative named James Garfield delivered a speech to nominate John Sherman.
The delegates at the convention liked Garfield's style so much that they nominated Garfield — not Sherman, the man Garfield was trying to nominate — as their choice for president. Garfield won the vote and became president, though he was sadly assassinated soon after.
A billionaire almost disrupted the 1992 race.
Long before the era of tycoons running for president, Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot ran as a third-party candidate in the 1992 U.S. election against Republican George Bush Sr. and Democrat Bill Clinton.
Perot's ticket presented a compelling option to voters, and his straight-talking style won over millions of voters who otherwise would have voted for one of the main two parties. In the end, Perot didn't win the election, but he did secure an impressive 19 million votes.
When a weird yell doomed a presidential run.
The 2004 U.S. election was highly anticipated, as George W. Bush was facing increasing criticism for the Iraq War. Several Democratic contenders emerged, including Vermont governor Howard Dean.
Of course, if you remember, you remember. Dean had plenty of momentum, and at a 2004 rally, he got pretty excited. After excitedly running down the list of states he wanted to win, he issued the "Dean scream" — a weird kind of yelp that immediately became iconic for the wrong reasons. It was mocked to the point that Dean lost all momentum, and John Kerry won the Democrat nomination.
In India, the voting just keeps going.
Western voters are used to the voting process taking place over the course of a day, with results typically announced soon after. But in India, voting can take weeks. This is due largely to the fact that India is a massive country both in terms of population and land area and has 22 official languages.
In all, there are about a million polling stations set up throughout the country, and some voters travel for days to cast their ballot. The 2019 election saw voting go on for 39 days.
In Australia, voting is the law.
Voting isn't technically mandatory in Australia, as citizens are free not to vote — but if they choose not to cast a ballot, they'll be hit with a fine. That's because Australia mandates that anyone who doesn't vote will be fined to the tune of $20 Australian dollars.
It's one of several countries that have mandatory voting, but the difference is that Australia actually enforces it. While other countries might officially require citizens to vote, Australia will track down those who don't and make sure they're fined for it.
The future is now (in Estonia).
While paper ballots seem increasingly antiquated and the movement grows to introduce some sort of electronic voting system, Estonia is a country that's actually made this significant leap. While paper ballots are still available, more than half of Estonia now casts its vote using electronic systems.
Security concerns ensure that Estonia keeps its elections on lockdown. This is done by giving citizens a unique ID card and PIN number. This ties each vote to a real person, but the person is anonymized before the vote is verified. It's a case study of what fully electronic voting could look like in the near future.
In 2006, the Mexican election sparked a cartel war.
While candidate Felipe Calderón won the 2006 Mexican general election, the second-place candidate — Andrés Manuel López Obrador — refused to recognize the results. This prompted a political crisis and turmoil, even though Calderón assumed office in the end.
Amid widespread protests over the election results, Calderón decided to do something drastic to make his mark: Declare war on the country's powerful cartels. That war is still going on, and it doesn't seem like it'll ever end.
Robots interfered in the Canadian parliamentary process.
The 2011 Canadian federal election was plagued by scandal, as the country's Conservative Party was accused of sending automated robocalls to voters, misleading them into going to the wrong polling station.
This was a significant scandal that grew bigger with the revelation that the calls were not merely centered around one area, but took place all over the country. While the Conservative Party didn't face charges or sanctions for these actions, a junior staffer named Michael Sona took the fall and was convicted of voter fraud.
A South Korean candidate rigged things in his favor.
South Korean President Syngman Rhee had the country's legislature pass a bill in 1952 that would exempt him from South Korea's two-term limit, effectively allowing him to run for president as many times as he wanted.
This came to a head in 1960 when Rhee was running for his fourth term. His opponent Cho Pyong-ok died unexpectedly, and an unopposed Rhee won the election. Because things were so heavily rigged, widespread protests eventually led to the April Revolution, which prompted widespread changes in South Korea.
Irregularities led to the election of Leslie Nielsen's brother.
In the 1957 Canadian federal election, voting results in the remote Yukon territory were widely disputed. The territory's court determined that the Yukon's Tory candidate unfairly lost, as ineligible voters secured the election of the Liberal candidate.
This triggered a by-election to right these wrongs, and the results flipped. The Tory candidate, Erik Nielsen, won the by-election. If you recognize that surname, it's because Erik Nielsen was the older brother of legendary comedic actor Leslie Nielsen.
An outsider won in 2016.
Before you ask, no, we're not talking about the 2016 U.S. election. This 2016 election took place in Iceland, with Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson — a historian with zero political background — winning the election as the ultimate outsider.
Jóhannesson was enormously popular because the release of the Panama Papers led to Icelanders growing disillusioned with perceived corruption in government. Because Jóhannesson was such an outsider, and as such untainted by this corruption, he cruised to victory.
One person voted more than a thousand times.
In India's election of 1957, one voter — Shankar Gulabi Chavan — apparently cast over a thousand votes. This is, of course, completely out of line with democratic principles, and led to an investigation.
As it turned out, voters in the village of Gujarat were given improper instructions on how balloting worked. More than a thousand of them mistakenly gave the name of Shankar Gulabi Chavan. Unsurprisingly, this prompted India to overhaul its system and make sure that voters were properly educated moving forward.
A Brazilian city elected a rhino.
Voters in São Paulo, Brazil, were so fed up with political corruption in the late 1950s that they voted for a joke candidate: A rhinoceros named Carareco, who was already a symbol of various protest movements.
The movement was so strong that Carareco received over 100,000 votes, which would have won the election in a landslide. City councilors didn't want a rhino in government, so the election was annulled. "Vote Carareco" is still a popular rallying cry in Brazil today.
The west influenced post-Soviet Russian elections.
Incumbent Boris Yeltsin ran against communist Gennady Zyuganov in the 1996 Russian presidential election. Zyuganov was popular and Yeltsin was trending downward at the time, but Yeltsin wound up winning.
In the lead-up to the election, allegations of media manipulation and Western interference began to emerge, which led to more distrust of the West in Russia. It's a prime example of how vulnerable post-Soviet Russia was to foreign and domestic interference.
Faulty glue delayed an Austrian election.
Austria's 2016 presidential election became infamous due to its repeated delays and legal complications. After irregularities were discovered with absentee ballots, the Constitutional Court annulled the election and ordered a rerun.
To complicate matters further, the rerun was postponed when the glue on ballot envelopes was found to be faulty. The election finally took place months later, with Van der Bellen emerging victorious once again.
Italians voted for a dead guy.
One of the candidates in the southern Italian region of Molise, Maurizio Ferrara, passed away just days before the election. It was too late to remove his name from the ballot, and Ferrara received thousands of votes even though he was no longer alive.
This was likely because voters were unaware of his death, and it led to questions of how to deal with similar circumstances in the future. After all, ballots need to be printed at some point, and can't be changed that quickly if something unfortunate does, in fact, happen.
Papua New Guinea's 2002 election was a mess.
In 2002, a general election in Papua New Guinea turned into an utter travesty as local candidates would pay hired goons to intimidate voters and rig the vote. Several constituencies declared their results invalid, which led to a round of new elections.
To add to the chaos, many voters found their names absent from electoral rolls, while others were able to vote multiple times. It was a flashpoint of political instability in Papua New Guinea that raised questions about the country's ability to encourage democracy.
The time a Mexican candidate just ran away.
After ruling Mexico for over 30 years, Porfirio Díaz faced growing criticism and revolutionary pressure, leading to his resignation. His opponent, Francisco Madero, ran on a platform centered around democratic reform and, essentially, being somebody new.
The election itself was largely symbolic, as Díaz was forced to flee into exile, and Madero’s victory marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. The election led to much-needed changes in Mexico but also ushered in decades of instability.
Liechtenstein didn't even want democracy.
In 2003, the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein held a referendum that defied modern trends of democratic reform. Instead of reducing monarchical power, citizens voted to grant Prince Hans-Adam II near-absolute authority, allowing him to dismiss governments, veto legislation, and rule by decree.
64 percent of voters approved the referendum, trusting in the prince's leadership due to the country’s prosperity under his reign. It was a marked contrast to virtually every other European country, where monarchs are largely symbolic.
Venice (unofficially) decided to secede.
In 2014, the region of Veneto, which includes Venice, held an online referendum to gauge support for independence from Italy. What made this election bizarre was that it was entirely unofficial, with no legal standing, yet over 2 million Venetians participated, and nearly 90% voted in favor of independence.
Despite the overwhelming support for secession, the Italian government ignored the results, and the referendum had no immediate impact. However, it highlighted a growing discontent among Venetians who felt disconnected from Rome.
Gaddafi's cult of personality was real.
In 1969, Muammar Gaddafi came to power in Libya in what is technically classified as a bloodless coup, but what makes it strange is the fact that Gaddafi positioned himself as the only viable candidate through sheer force of personality and manipulation of tribal politics.
The coup led to decades of dictatorial rule, and Gaddafi held periodic "referendums" that invariably showed near 100% support for his continued rule, though these were widely regarded as rigged.
Liberia set the standard for election fraud.
Liberia's 1927 election is considered the most fraudulent election in history. Incumbent President Charles D.B. King claimed to have won with a staggering 243,000 votes. The only problem? There were only 15,000 registered voters in the country.
King's opponent, Thomas J. Faulkner, received just 9,000 votes. This blatantly rigged election was so absurd that it has become a symbol of extreme electoral manipulation. Liberia, at the time, was heavily influenced by American governance styles, but its elections showed the degree to which power could be abused.
Everyone liked James Monroe.
The 1820 election of James Monroe was unusual in that it was nearly unanimous. Monroe ran unopposed for a second term, earning all but one electoral vote. That single vote was cast for John Quincy Adams by a New Hampshire elector who did not want George Washington's unanimous record to be broken.
This quirky decision has been cited as an example of how personal preference and symbolism can create odd election outcomes. This marked the end of the "Era of Good Feelings," a time when political discord was at an all-time low.
Zimbabwe got off to a messy start.
The 1979 Rhodesian general election, held during the final years of white minority rule, was supposed to mark the beginning of majority rule in what is now Zimbabwe. However, the election was strange in that it was boycotted by the main African nationalist groups and resulted in Abel Muzorewa becoming the country's first black prime minister.
White Rhodesians retained most of the power despite the election's outcome, and the government was not recognized by the international community.
Serbia just didn't care.
The 2002 Serbian presidential election was bizarre not for who won, but for the fact that voter turnout was so low that the election had to be invalidated. Neither candidate—Vojislav Koštunica nor Miroljub Labus—could win due to the country's law requiring at least 50% voter turnout for the results to be valid.
The election had to be rerun because of voter apathy, which was attributed to general political disillusionment after the fall of Slobodan Milošević. It's one of the few times in history that voter turnout has been so low that it's invalidated an election.
