Framing the Vote: Country Over State
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet exits the voting booth, faces questions about the electoral outcomes, and delivers a poignant response about the importance of the national vote over state pride.
Bartlet quotes New Hampshire election code to sidestep a direct answer about his vote on the bond issue, then confirms his support for it, linking it to public education benefits.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Confident and wryly amused; testing rhetorical moves while centrally mindful of framing the night's narrative.
Bartlet emerges, takes applause, reframes the local contest as subordinate to national consequence, dodges a direct answer with a dry legal citation, then plainly endorses the bond by connecting it to public education.
- • Control the narrative by elevating national interests above parochial wins.
- • Avoid being trapped by local press questions while still signaling concrete policy support.
- • Project competence and thoughtfulness to voters and media.
- • Rhetoric can reshape how a vote is perceived—country over state is a stronger moral frame.
- • Public endorsement of local policy should be framed in terms of public good, not political expedience.
Warmly approving and performative: their applause underscores community endorsement and fuels the couple's public performance.
The crowd applauds as Abbey and Bartlet exit the booth and reacts approvingly to their statements, serving as immediate social reinforcement for the couple's public posture.
- • Show support for the President and First Lady.
- • Signal community engagement and approval to media and campaign.
- • Create an atmosphere of celebration to bolster morale.
- • Public applause affirms leadership and helps shape media narrative.
- • Visible support at polling places reflects broader electoral momentum.
Professional, slightly impatient; seeking a quotable answer to satisfy public curiosity and generate copy.
The reporter presses Abbey and Bartlet with direct questions about who they voted for, about suspense in races, and specifically asks whether Bartlet voted for the bond, functioning as the intrusive public interlocutor.
- • Elicit a clear answer that can be reported as news.
- • Create a narrative hook about New Hampshire's importance to the election outcome.
- • Test the President's political positioning on a local issue.
- • Voters and viewers want direct answers about how public figures vote.
- • Getting a definitive quote from the candidate is valuable journalism.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The curtained voting booth provides the staging device: Abbey and Bartlet emerge from it into applause, establishing the ritual of voting and the visual transition from private act to public statement, anchoring the scene's political theater.
Abbey invokes 'Chicago ballots' as a rhetorical prop—an offhand claim that humanizes her campaign involvement and broadens the frame beyond New Hampshire, turning the physical ballot into a symbol of national campaign labor.
The $600 million bond issue functions as the policy focal point: reporters press for the President's stance and Bartlet ultimately endorses it, using the measure to demonstrate commitment to public education and to give concrete policy content to his rhetorical framing.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
First Emmanuel Episcopal Church functions as the ceremonial and practical polling site where the private act of voting becomes a public moment. The church's nave, voting booths, and entrance provide the physical and symbolic stage for media, crowd, and candidate interaction.
New Hampshire is the broader jurisdictional frame invoked by questions about state returns and the bond issue; it functions as the battleground whose local results carry symbolic weight for the national contest being discussed.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
First Emmanuel Episcopal Church is the institutional host for voting: its physical space becomes the site where civic ritual, media, and political performance intersect. The church's role is logistical (polling place) and symbolic (sanctified public space).
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
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Key Dialogue
"ABBEY: Nobody. I was just fixing my makeup."
"BARTLET: Better than if I won my home state but lost my home country. The only poll that matters closes in 17 hours."
"BARTLET: Title 63, Chapter 659, Section 43 of New Hampshire election code says electioneering is prohibited within a corridor ten feet wide and extending a distance from the entrance door of the building as determined by the moderator where the election is being held. If anyone knows what that means... / BARTLET: Yeah, I voted for the bond issue. It's going to improve public education without a tax abatement."