The band, which originally included singer-songwriter Ben Gibbard, guitarist/producer Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer, and drummer Nathan Good, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997.

[1] Gibbard—an environmental chemistry major—had been working at a testing lab in Bellingham while Harmer and Walla were making ends meet at a coffee shop.

Good departed Death Cab for Cutie in early 1999, and the three-piece soldiered on with an interim drummer in his place from April to September of that year.

Their lack of financial stability hindered matters; at the time, the band only made $50 per show, which mainly went towards fueling the Ford Econoline to drive to the next city.

Gibbard has characterized this period in the history of Death Cab for Cutie as "interstitial", with them lacking assurance of what was to come: "It was made at a time when we didn’t have any sense of what the future held for us as individuals, let alone as a band," he recalled two decades later.

He initially attempted to follow one of his idols, engineer Steve Albini, who holds a studio approach similar to realistic photography: this is simply documenting what is occurring with little intervention.

[2] The liner notes for the album credit its recording and mixing to the Hall of Justice, a reference to the animated television series Super Friends.

[2] Gibbard also conceded that his longtime love for fellow Northwest rockers Built to Spill led to "flagrant" appropriation of their sound in early work by Death Cab for Cutie, while Jon Pareles of The New York Times also suggested We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes is aurally reminiscent of Pavement.

The board also has built-in presets, and though Walla found them "cheesy," the band ended up utilizing a "cathedral" setting for bombastic effects.

[3] Journalist Ian Cohen felt that Walla's nascent production skill displays "distinct sonic character, [with] everything obscured by a mid-fi mist, the pine scent of the Pacific Northwest and gin breath.

[3] Gibbard's songwriting on We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes differs from its predecessor, possessing a more novelistic approach and frequently utilizing full sentences.

In a later interview, Gibbard acknowledged his privilege as a "middle-class college-educated white man in America," admitting that, "In reality, [nervousness is] not something one should garner too much sympathy about.

[10] The first half of "Title Track" contains a softer, more lo-fi sound; Cohen assumed it was run through a low-pass filter, and likened the effect to "being heard through a thin apartment wall.

Walla had the idea to trick listeners into believing the album was no different to its predecessor, letting the lower-quality sound cycle for too long before improving.

In college, Gibbard saw a girl whose family lived off the 405; the song makes reference to a shared weekend smoking cigarettes and drinking red wine.

[2] This iteration of "Epilogue" was recorded only one day before mastering was set to begin; an alternate edition was later released on The Forbidden Love EP later in 2020.

[3] "No Joy in Mudville" is a tribute to musician Lou Reed, while "Scientist Studies" stemmed from the home Death Cab for Cutie had previously inhabited in Bellingham, which had no heating.

[2] The title We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes came from musician Herbert Burgel, a Seattle contemporary who formed the band Rat Cat Hogan.

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes was supported by college radio stations, and debuted "strongly" on CMJ New Music Report's Top 200 at number 51.

"[6][10] AllMusic reviewer Jack Rabid viewed the album as the band's "best and brightest LP" yet, calling it a "superb" effort which marks Gibbard's emergence as a "sublime" songwriter.

Brent DiCrescenzo of the then-emerging website Pitchfork likened it to the work of an experienced, mid-career band, lauding its "warm, rich tone" and "delicate beauty.

And editor of The Rolling Stone Album Guide found the melodies superior to prior releases, complimenting its "smattering of psychedelia.

"[22] A CMJ New Music Report editorialist branded the album an "impressive collection [...] In an otherwise flooded genre, DCFC stands out as one of the more innovative and skillful of the pack.

"[14] Pareles included it in a listing for The New York Times "Worthwhile Albums Most People Missed" at the end of 2000, proposing that "[Gibbard's] wiry songs aren't as uncertain as their lyrics pretend to be.