In the opening scene C.J. jokes with the retired President Bartlet about Santa Monica being his "kind of town", then responds to his question with "not really". In fact actor Martin Sheen was a very politically involved resident of Santa Monica.
The first section of the episode was filmed entirely at the University of Southern California. President Bartlet (Martin Sheen)'s library is Doheny Library, starting in the Los Angeles Times reference rooms then moving into the lobby. Congressman Santos gives his speech across Alumni Park in Bovard Auditorium. It is possible to see the library from the first scene in the opening shots of the second.
This season was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006, winning two. The show was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series for the seventh year running. Alan Alda, as Senator Vinick, won in the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Martin Sheen, as President Bartlet, was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Allison Janney, as C.J., was nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. Mimi Leder was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for the episode "Election Day" and Audio mixer Edward J. Greene and EFX mixer Andrew Strauber won the award for Outstanding Multi-camera Sound Mixing for a Series or Special for "The Debate". Eli Attie and John Wells received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination in the Episodic Drama category for "Election Day Part II". Attie and Wells were nominated for the $15,000 Humanitas Prize in the 60-minute category for the same episode, which was also the submission that won the show an AFI Award that year. The show won the Hallmark Hall of Fame Heritage Award at the Television Critics Association Awards and Alda received a nomination for Individual Achievement in Drama. Alda was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, The Guild nominated the whole ensemble for the Outstanding Performance in a Drama Series award. Supervising sound editors Walter Newman and Thomas A. Harris, supervising dialogue editor Catherine Flynn, and dialogue and ADR editors Virginia Cook and Steffan Falesitch were nominated for a Golden Reel Award in the Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form - Dialogue and Automated Dialogue Replacement with the episode "The Ticket". At the ALMA Awards, a Latino awards ceremony, the show won Best TV Series and Jimmy Smits (as Matt Santos) as Best Actor in a TV Series. At another Latino ceremony, the Imagen Awards, the show won Best Primetime Series with Smits nominated for Best Actor in Television.