Democrats hope new system proves speedy, glitch-free
By JONATHAN ROOS
Register Staff Writer
01/17/2004
After months of training and the installation of a new electronic caucus reporting system, the Iowa Democratic Party is ready to put on a political show for the whole world to see.
Party officials have their fingers crossed that Monday night's event - actually 1,993 precinct meetings across the state - will be glitch-free.
"It's been compared to planning a wedding for 100,000 people that's going to be nationally broadcast," said Ben Foecke, the party's caucus director.
Party officials acknowledge that efficient and accurate reporting of results is key to fending off criticism of the caucuses and upholding the integrity of the event, which launches the presidential nominating process. A significant snag Monday could embarrass the state and Democrats, and tarnish the caucuses.
The behind-the-scenes improvement that officials are counting on to make things go smoothly this year is an automated telephone reporting system designed to speed the compilation of results from caucus sites across the state. Republicans used a similar system four years ago.
"This year with so many candidates and the jockeying around, we needed a faster and more secure system," Foecke said. Eight candidates are competing for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The goal of party officials is to be able to report the final tally for the caucuses by 9 or 9:30 p.m. In the past, results haven't been reported until 11 p.m. or later, Foecke said. The neighborhood meetings start at 6:30 p.m.
At previous caucuses, officials at individual precincts would call in results to the county's party chairman, who would relay the information to state headquarters in Des Moines.
"It was sort of slow. In the bigger counties, it takes someone to compute the results of 60, 70, 80 precincts," Foecke said.
With the automated system, candidate preferences from the precincts will be telephoned directly to a computer system that spits out a running tabulation of the results. Results will be recorded on paper, as well.
To enhance security, a caller must enter an access code for the precinct. Once the results are confirmed, the code can't be used again. The old system will be kept as a backup.
Rosemary Pratt, Democratic leader of a precinct on Des Moines' north side, said she has faith that the new system will work as advertised.
"The technology is so advanced. I'm impressed. . . . They say it's capable of handling all the calls, even if there are 100 calling in at exactly the same minute," said Pratt, chairwoman of the Precinct 12 caucus, which will meet in the Hoover High School cafeteria.
"There are backups, so if you input incorrect information, you can't proceed," she said.
Frequent updates will show up on a large-screen leader board at the party's caucus headquarters at the Polk County Convention Complex, as well as at separate Web sites for journalists and the general public. The public Web site is www.iowademocrats.org.
To aid journalists' analysis, statewide results will be broken down by county and congressional district.
In addition, the hundreds of reporters covering the caucuses will know Monday night how many Iowans took part in the event, based on information processed through the automated reporting system.
That was a problem four years ago, when it took party officials several days to report how many Iowans took part in the caucuses.
An estimated 61,000 Democrats participated in the 2000 Iowa caucuses, when Al Gore defeated Bill Bradley. Officials this year say there could be a record turnout of more than 125,000 participants.
The Iowa Democratic Party expects to spend about $750,000 on the caucuses, which lead off the presidential nominating process.
desmoinesregister.com |
