Democratic convention turns to tech for speed

CEDAR RAPIDS - By eliminating counting hands and paper ballots, the Iowa Democratic Party hopes to wrap up its state convention Saturday before the day is over.

In an effort to improve the accuracy and efficiency of voting for a total of 15 national convention delegates, State Central Committee members, two Democratic National Committee members, two presidential electors and platform planks, the party will implement new voting technology. Delegates to the convention at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines will cast their votes using a handheld device.

'As long as it took some of the district conventions, we wanted to make sure we had better efficiency without trading off security,” state chairwoman Andy McGuire said. Some district conventions ran past midnight.

'We always want plenty of time for discussion,” McGuire said. 'This should take what I would call dead time while you're waiting for people to get the votes done, and speed it up.”

The Republican Party of Iowa used similar technology at its district conventions and the response was so favorable the party contracted to use them at its state convention last month, party spokesman Taylor Mason said.

'The delegates loved not waiting for ballots to be counted,” Mason said. 'It was easier and made the convention process move faster.”

The GOP state convention was over by 2:30 p.m.

Democrats, who have had a couple of training sessions, will have a series of practice rounds for delegates to familiarize themselves with the handheld devices before any official, binding votes are taken.

Mason said the learning curve was 'about two minutes.”

Neither Mason nor McGuire would say what it cost to use the devices.