Why do joke candidates campaign at elections?
ABC Radio DarwinBy Conor Byrne and Liz Trevaskis
Posted 7m ago7 minutes ago
[ original | archive ]
Their faces are on campaign posters, but their names are not on the ballot paper — so why do unelectable candidates vie for victory in local elections?
Key points:
- Joke candidates can be a bit of fun, but they can also be used to skew a result
- Dogs, cartoon characters, and evil monsters have "campaigned" for Northern Territory elections
- Animals and inanimate objects have been elected to office worldwide
They included Butters, a west highland terrier cross who is campaigning to become mayor of both Darwin and Palmerston, and president of Coomalie Shire.
While Butters hasn't been formally nominated and isn't on the ballot paper, six of his posters are on display around the Top End.
Campaign manager Will Baldwin, 9, from Batchelor says his pet dog is promising "free ice cream, more pocket money, free slushies and no more homework".
"He's got a heart of gold. He's smart, loyal, well behaved and better than human candidates."
Big paws to fill
Butters is filling the shoes of an incumbent political dog.There are not many Top Enders who haven't heard of Scrumpy, the jack russell terrier who campaigned for Territory Parliament in 2016, Darwin and Palmerston mayor in 2017, and posthumously for Federal Parliament in 2019.
It helped that his former owner Deb Taipale runs a sign manufacturing business.
"It started because all the candidates were useless," she said.
"Every customer was winging about them all and I agreed and said my dog could do a better job.
"We did six posters just to amuse ourselves.
Scrumpy's death in January 2019 made front-page news in the NT and prompted much mourning on social media.
"If it gave a few people a laugh, then great. But it went nuts."
Close to the bone
The 2012 local elections in Alice Springs saw a prankster erect joke placards featuring characters that some felt were similar in appearance to some of the real candidates.Mayor Damien Ryan freely admits his likeness to Family Guy lead character Peter Griffin, who appeared on Alice Springs lampposts during the campaign.
"I laughed my head off because I knew straight away that the depiction of Peter Griffin was me," he said.
"Some of the family thought it was very harsh, but I've got a pretty thick skin."
The perpetrator has never owned up, but Mr Ryan has his suspicions following an anonymous letter to his office.
"There was a couple of angry candidates, you might say."
Placards for Gollum from Lord of the Rings and Sesame Street's Cookie Monster have also caught the town's attention.
Sinister side
But sometimes the joke can get out of hand, and there are about a dozen cases worldwide — mostly in the USA — where dogs, goats, cats, a mule, and even a foot powder have been elected to office.Less successful candidates included a rhinoceros, a boar hog, a turtle, chimpanzees, a puppet, a chicken, and a fire hydrant.
University of Queensland psychology professor Winifred Louis said there are four evidence-based reasons why joke candidates turn up.
"One is larrikins, where probably younger people, probably friends egg each other on. The motivation is the laughs and the attention and feeling like they're causing a ruckus and a stir," she said.
"Another reason is low political interest and anger about compulsory voting."
In that case, "people don't care who wins. They just want to make the point that the system is contemptible," Ms Louis said.
The third reason is strategic, where a joke candidate is used to attract votes away from a close rival.
"You can put up a joke candidate that may attract something like 5 per cent of the votes, and the preferences of that person can be used to win a title election. That's a bit cynical, and in fact, fraudulent," Ms Louis said.
"The last one is probably the most common, which is a protest that the major parties don't offer a good choice, that the field is bad.
"People are motivated to ridicule and humiliate the other candidates in the field, and send a message like 'a third of the people in your electorate would rather vote for a dog than you'."
