It takes a long time, but Burt eventually feels like Finn understands what he did wrong. Finn lies to Figgins, saying that when Santana slapped him, that it was just a stage slap, preventing her from being suspended. He gets her to bring the Troubletones to Glee for the week so that the club can show support for her.

     Kurt and Blaine tell Burt about the duet about acceptance they sang for her. Burt can tell how special the song is to the two of them, but apparently Santana didn’t appreciate it anywhere near as much as they had expected her to. Burt suggests that maybe she’s trying to protect herself by not letting people in, since she’d been hurt so badly. Blaine understands this concept entirely, having done the same at times, and he and Kurt feel less hurt by her snide remarks. 

     The Congressional race comes to an end and no one is more surprised than Burt himself when he wins the election. There are tears of joy and the celebrations go on late into the evening. There are talks of plans, of strategies, but the focus now is on a big party for his supporters.

     This gets interrupted by a call from McKinley, telling Burt that he needs to get there as soon as possible to be present in a disciplinary meeting about Kurt. Burt drops everything to go there, beyond confused over what it could be. As it turns out, the ballot box in Kurt’s election was stuffed in his favour, with more people voting for him than were in the senior class.

     Kurt is defensive, but admits to considering to cheating. In that moment, Burt makes up his mind. Whether or not Kurt did stuff the ballots, he’s not innocent. It’s decided that Kurt is disqualified from the election, and that Brittany, that silly cheerleader, wins instead. Kurt runs from the office, tears on his face. Burt shakes hands with the administration and leaves to drive home, trying to figure out what to say when Kurt comes home.

     When he hears the front door open, he calls out.

     “Kurt, get in the kitchen.” He doesn’t manage to disguise his tone into something non-threatening.

     But it’s not Kurt that comes into the kitchen, it’s Blaine. He looks really uncomfortable, but he sits down at the table.

     “Kurt’s with Mike and Tina. He wasn’t, uhm, ready to come home and he wanted to keep crying for a while, so I sent him home with them.”

     Burt nods. He had felt angry at the school, but it really hurts to think that Kurt thought he couldn’t come home, whether because of guilt or fear.

     “He didn’t do it, Burt.” Blaine says, his eyes pleading. “You must know that. You can tell when he’s lying. He’s not a cheater; he works too hard. It crossed his mind one day when he was talking to Rachel, but he said that he didn’t think of it again after that conversation. It was more of a joke than anything else.”

     “But he told us it crossed his mind. Why would he do that?” Burt asks, confused.

     “If you’d done something you shouldn’t have and lied about it, would you ever admit to considering it? Of course not. You’d deny it, tooth and nail. Kurt is so honest, so transparent, you know that. He couldn’t even withhold the fact that it had crossed his mind.”

     What Blaine is saying makes sense. Kurt never was able to lie, even as a child. He’d come to his mom and Burt crying, saying that he’d broken something or that he’d taken a cookie from the jar and that he was so, so sorry.

     “Would you tell me if you’d thought he’d cheated?” The words are out of Burt’s mind the moment they are thought.

     A stricken look crosses Blaine’s face. He doesn’t answer for the longest time, his face simply changing from looks of concern to looks of confusion until a look of decisiveness crosses his face.

     “In an election to have a position wherein the only power is picking the theme of prom, with the two other candidates being a mindless cheerleader and a mindless jock, both of whom had tormented him in the past?”

     It’s enough of an answer for Burt, but it’s actually a pretty diplomatic answer as well. It shows Blaine’s loyalty to Kurt, but also faith in Burt’s ability to react fairly in difficult situations.

     “Okay, fine. Why don’t you go pick him up. Make sure to tell him I’m not mad or whatever you need to say to get him to come home. Sounds good?”

     “So you’re not mad?” Blaine asks, just to make sure, but a little doubt creeping into his voice.

     “He didn’t actually do anything wrong, did he?” Burt challenges.

     “No, no he didn’t.” Blaine affirms with a smile.

     It turns out that Rachel had stuffed the ballots after Kurt had joked about it in their conversation. This makes Burt want to take back all the nice thoughts he had about her last week when she bowed out of the race. They’ll never know if Kurt would have won if he hadn’t been disqualified, but Burt tries not to think in those terms.

     Kurt now has to write up his application form for NYADA, many of the spaces for extra-curriculars painfully empty. Burt steps back and lets Blaine help his son through all of this. Kurt’s not particularly fond of Burt right now, even after Burt apologized for assuming the worst. Plus, Blaine’s able to help Kurt deal with it all better than Burt ever could.