Though the tour and the organization were officially non-partisan, many of the performers urged people to vote against then President George W. Bush and for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election campaign.

[7][better source needed] In terms of the tour's effect on the 2004 election, none of the visited states went differently from what had been predicted in pre-election polls.

Four of the eight ended up voting in favor of Kerry (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) while the other four went to Bush (Missouri, Iowa, Florida, and Ohio).

The Springsteen and E Street Band performances were compressed to two hours in length due to the multi-act nature of the concerts.

[8] Especially at the beginning of his sets, Springsteen accomplished this by stripping down the songs,[8] removing elongated outros and false endings from the likes of "Born in the U.S.A." and "Badlands".