FILM · 1999 · USA
Election
38 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (38)
- #001
A newspaper article shown in the film reads: "If you paused the movie to read this entire article, you would be better off spending your time renting Citizen Ruth (1996) from your local video store. Do you know how hard it is to write a few fake stories for newspaper movie props? I have better things to do."
- #002
Election was Chris Klein's first film. He was discovered by director Alexander Payne while a student at Millard West High School in Omaha, when Payne was scouting for a school to shoot in (a different school was ultimately used). Although other actors auditioned for Paul, Klein had stayed in Payne's mind.
- #003
The ending was probably reshot after poor test screenings. The original ending, in which Mr. McAllister works at a car dealership and Tracy visits him before leaving for college, was closer to the novel.
- #004
When Paul is called to the office to learn the truth about the election, his Spanish class is conjugating the verb "perder," which means "to lose."
- #005
When MTV Productions sent Alexander Payne the novel in 1997 to gauge his interest, Payne told them he did not want to make a teen comedy. After talking with them, they convinced him the story was a dark, adult comedy disguised as a teen comedy. Accepting that claim, he agreed to make the film.
- #006
The classroom scenes were shot at Papillion-La Vista High School, a real high school in Omaha, Nebraska. During filming, real classes were being held in the adjoining classrooms. Some of the background sounds in the soundtrack come from real teachers and students. Director Alexander Payne decided to keep these sounds in the final film to give it a more realistic feel.
- #007
Apples feature prominently throughout the film, usually just before something bad happens to a character. They are used as a metaphor for persuading Paul Metzler to run in the election; an apple tree is shown before Mr. McAllister is stung by a bee, apples hang above the doorway of Mr. McAllister's living room just before he learns that his wife knows he cheated on her, and at the start of the film Mr. McAllister wins the Apple Teacher of the Year Award.
- #008
The Spanish teacher was in fact director Alexander Payne's own Spanish and French teacher from the school and era he had attended.
- #009
Because the extras in the gymnasium scenes were real high school students, director Alexander Payne faced the problem of not having enough of them due to SAT season, and most had already learned that working as an extra is sometimes a boring process. As a solution for shots requiring a full gymnasium to be seen, Payne had extras get up from their seats two or three times, with editing used to make it appear as if there were more people. The wide shot showing both sides of the gymnasium was done in under twenty minutes after Papillion-La Vista High School teachers asked more students to take part in the filming.
- #010
Loren Nelson, who plays the principal in the film, was in fact a principal at Duchesne Academy in Omaha. He has since retired.
- #011
Reese Witherspoon did not approve of director Alexander Payne's decision to include a frozen frame of Tracy with a twisted face.
- #012
Thora Birch, who was originally cast as Tammy Metzler, left the Omaha shoot on her third day due to creative differences with Alexander Payne.
- #013
Reese Witherspoon initially wanted to play Tammy Metzler.
- #014
Each of the three candidates has a fake Tiffany lamp on their nightstand.
- #015
The original ending had Tracy and McAllister reconcile and revealed that everything was perhaps a twisted kind of love/hate relationship. Tracy comes to the car dealership where McAllister works and asks him to sign her yearbook. Tracy confesses that she is afraid of going to college, and Tracy comforts her and then apologizes to him for sabotaging his election. This is a major departure from what was in the theatrical release, in which there is no such reconciliation between the rivals in the story. In the theatrical version, McAllister's election sabotage is reported in the media and blown up all over the country, at which point a thoroughly humiliated McAllister eventually goes into hiding and flees to New York, where he becomes a museum tour guide. He finally sees Tracy again while she is on vacation in Washington, D.C.; Tracy is a Congressional aide and is getting into a limousine with her government official friends. At that point McAllister throws his Pepsi (specifically not cola) at the car, which is far from Tracy and McAllister making peace and apologizing to each other.
- #016
Matthew Broderick actually urinated on a tree in the scene outside Linda's (Delaney Driscoll's) house.
- #017
Former United States President Barack Obama said this film was his favorite political film.
- #018
Reese Witherspoon's role as Tracy Flick was chosen by Premiere Magazine as the 45th Greatest Film Performance of All Time.
- #019
Actor Chris Klein and director Alexander Payne are both from Omaha, and nearly the entire film was shot in and around Omaha using real high school students from the area.
- #020
G. W. Carver High School is actually Papillion-La Vista High School, located in Papillion, Nebraska. Director Alexander Payne wanted to use Omaha North High School, an older, more traditional-looking school building, but the superintendent of Omaha Public Schools refused after reading the script and finding it inappropriate.
- #021
While filming the basement scene featuring Jim McAllister, the crew left everything the home's actual tenants owned in their basement; they only made room for the film equipment.
- #022
After Reese Witherspoon's character Tracy Flick is fired, she wonders what happened to Mr. Dave Novotny, while Mark Harelik is seen working at the store where Kurtwood Smith's character Norm Stoney worked in Alexander Payne's earlier dramatized film Citizen Ruth (1996). Mr. Novotny is also seen putting price tags on boxes of porch sealant.
- #023
Most of Alexander Payne's films are set in and shot in Omaha.
- #024
The film was shot in the fall, and a terrible snowstorm interrupted filming.
- #025
It ranked 9th on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies (2006).
- #026
The apple tree in the backyard of Delaney Driscoll's character Linda Novotny was not actually an apple tree; the crew had to tie apples to the branches.
- #027
Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Tracy Flick.
- #028
Tim Robbins was one of the first candidates for the role of Jim McAllister.
- #029
The film is part of the Criterion Collection as spine number 904.
- #030
Jim McAllister's diet also appears less healthy as his life worsens. He is initially seen running regularly and eating salad at dinner. When the idea of getting involved in the election first occurs to him, he is seen drinking Pepsi. Right after his relationship fails, he stuffs his face with a cake and is no longer seen running in the mornings. In the end, when Paul Metzler and his family meet him at the restaurant, Jim is eating his pie, and on the side he has barely touched we can see the salad. In the epilogue, when he sees Tracy one last time and throws his drink at the limousine, its consistency and color look like a milkshake.
- #031
GW Carver High School's school colors in the film are maroon (cardinal) and gold. George Washington Carver earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State University, whose colors are also cardinal and gold.
- #032
In the director's commentary, Alexander Payne said that the bee stinging Jim McAllister's eye was not in Tom Perrotta's novel.
- #033
The yearbook office seen in a scene featuring Tracy Flick is actually Papillion-La Vista High School's real yearbook office, as opposed to the director's office, which was renovated into the detention room for the film.
- #034
After Tracy compares her campaign to Coca-Cola being the best soda distributor yet still paying large sums for advertising, Jim McAllister is shown drinking Pepsi, Coca-Cola's main rival.
- #035
Despite its box office success and critical acclaim, Paramount Pictures had campaigned for possible Oscar nominations for the film. One of the most sought-after nominations was Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon (she had been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress that year, but lost). In the end the film managed only one Oscar nomination: Best Adapted Screenplay.
- #036
Tom Perrotta told HuffPost that Paramount asked him to choose one of the Toms for the role of Jim McAllister: Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise.
- #037
Matt Malloy's surname is misspelled as "Molloy" in the opening title sequence.
- #038
During Paul's acceptance speech, in a close-up of Matthew Broderick, part of a poster reading "ill man" is visible over his right shoulder (camera left).
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