Animals as electoral candidates

Non-human electoral candidates have been found in a number of countries. Often, the candidacies are a means of casting a protest vote or satirizing the political system. Other times, it is simply done for the entertainment value.

Electoral regulations may explicitly require candidates to be human (or equivalent wording), or may require candidates to do things which animals cannot reasonably do (such as sign their name legibly on a legal form). On some occasions, however, animals have been accepted as candidates, and have even won office.

The notion of animals being elected to office has often been the subject of parody and folklore.

In 1817 Thomas Love Peacock's novel Melincourt featured an orangutan as a parliamentary candidate.

In 1951 cartoon Ballot Box Bunny, Bugs Bunny ran for the office of mayor against Yosemite Sam. Both lost to a "dark horse candidate": a mare.

In 1972, American singer Tom T. Hall had a hit with a recording entitled "The Monkey That Became President" which considered a scenario in which said animal was elected to office.

In 1976, Marvel Comics announced that their character Howard the Duck would run in that year's election for the U.S. presidency.

The Black Mirror episode "The Waldo Moment" explores the concept of a cartoon character electoral candidate. Several news reports, including one by Chris Cillizza, political reporter for The Washington Post, compared the 2016 Donald Trump political campaign to the episode; later, in September 2016, episode writer Charlie Brooker also compared the Trump campaign to The Waldo Moment and predicted Trump would win the 2016 election.

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