Why Did McAllister Throw the Ballot Slips Into The Trash Can?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Election
stephanielaur92 — 11 years ago(March 28, 2015 01:33 PM)
If McAllister was so desperate for Tracy not to win the election, why in the world did he throw the slips of ballot sheets in the school trash can where people could easily see them? Wouldn't it have been smarter if he had put them in his pocket and disposed of it outside of school, or if he simply ran them through the paper shredder?
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linettywetty — 11 years ago(April 03, 2015 05:32 PM)
I thought the same thing when I first watched it, but I figured he threw them in the trash to quickly get rid of them (the 2 students were sitting across from him and watching like a hawk). Then he could take them out of the trash on his way out and dispose of them, but he probably forgot since he had so much on his mind at that point. that might be a possibility?
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sflowers539 — 10 years ago(April 04, 2015 03:56 PM)
It would have been smarter for him to do something more elaborate, but it's probably one of the movie's way to nod to the 90's, a recent but utterly different era then today, where things were more innocent and you did not have to think things through so much. If I were in his position and doing that today, I would have to search the room first to make sure nobody hid a pen or cell phone camera to film the vote counting, then I would have to smuggle them out of the school and burn them.
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transmentalist — 10 years ago(May 26, 2015 09:17 PM)
Remember, he was "teacher of the year" a number of times, and a guy who preached about morals & ethics.
He wasn't experienced, in other words, with "doing the wrong thing."
So of course he made a dumb mistake trying to cover up an impulsive action that, for him, was already very much "out of character."
He was not a smart thief, he was a good teacher who was already having a really bad day.