This song should be adopted by some radical network as an opening theme for political convention coverage every four years, or at least be required listening for some of the more comprehensive Civics classes.

Written in November of 1912, and originally sketched (Q2636) for voice accompanied by three pianos, later reduced to one for publication, this remarkable song for tenor or soprano is arguably Ives' most "modern" work when compared to the minimalist and indeterminate techniques and aesthetics that arose in the second half of the twentieth century. In this work, after a one-measure introduction, there is only one piano chord pulsed in various accents throughout (minimalist), and the voice goes from speaking without specified pitch but on specific rhythm to the inverse of "free singing words without bar lines, without reference to piano" (indeterminate).

Opening in 9/16 meter, there is one arpeggio of descending and ascending minor ninths played forte, and the voice enters fortissimo: "Vote for names!" On the last word, the piano accompaniment begins an insistent pulsing of an E flat minor chord over an E minor seventh. Ives remarks "same chord hit hard over and over—Hot Air Election Slogan." The nine beats occur in sub-divided accents: 2 + 3 + 4, 5 + 4, 2 + 7. "Names! Names! All nice men!!"

In measure five, the accents settle into the pattern 2 + 3 + 4, with a simple four-note melodic gesture added over the chords. "Three nice men: Teddy, Woodrow and Bill."

At measure eleven, the piano returns to the first accent pattern (2 + 3 + 4, 5 + 4, 2 + 7) for fourteen more measures until the end. The voice continues without specific correlation to the piano part, without unnecessary bar lines and in "no meter". After the simple speaking style of the first part, the voice enters into an exaggerated declamatory style with extreme register skips, odd glissandos, etc., which is indicated in the following quote: "After (high octave) trying (gliss. up) hard (gliss. up) to think what's the (high) best way (gliss. down) to (tremble) vote (normal voice) I say: Just walk right in and grab a ballot (chanted) with the eyes shut and walk right out (gliss. up then down) a-gain."

The voice and piano will probably end more or less together, but even if the piano ends first, it would not matter because the last note is a sustained fortissimo G flat in the lower register for tenor or soprano, which will give the impression of an insistent, rough voice which has spent nearly all its energy getting the message across.

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