We have investigated the direct effect of soft electron precipitation on the nitrogen vibrational distribution and on the rate coefficient for the ion-atom interchange reaction between O+ and N2 using a spectrum of the precipitating electrons characteristic of the dayside cusp region. Substantial increases in the nitrogen vibrational temperature and in the rate of the O+ destruction reaction do not occur unless the flux of incident electrons is as large as 1012 cm-2 s-1. For such large fluxes, departures of the vibrational distribution from a Boltzmann distribution have a significant effect on the rate coefficient. Incidentfluxes less than 1011 cm-2 s-1, such as are usually observed, have little direct effect on nitrogen vibration, although the indirect effect resulting from enhanced electron tmeperatures might be important.