S.C. precincts will call in results

WASHINGTON -- The South Carolina Democratic Party will rely on a system battle-tested in the Iowa caucuses to deliver Tuesday's primary results in record time, but some Iowans who used it question whether the hurry is worth the hassle.

South Carolina's precinct chairs will call in vote counts using an automated touch-tone phone system, similar to those consumers use to place orders or access accounts. The system should allow the South Carolina Democratic Party to rush the final count to the media shortly after South Carolina's 2,009 precincts close at 7 p.m.

But some Iowa precinct chairs who used the system to deliver results found it burdensome, with long wait times,

busy signals, hang ups, heavy static and difficulty confirming data.

"I had numerous people tell me they couldn't get through," said E.J. Gallagher III, the Black Hawk County Democratic Party chair. "I don't have any reason to believe the totals were out of whack. Eventually everything got in, but there was a significant number (of callers) that had problems with it."

Peggy Dunbar, an Iowa volunteer who couldn't get through the seven times she dialed in, called the system horrible.

"There were problems, definitely," Dunbar said. "There was an emergency number and we called that, so finally I talked to a normal person."

But the shift has been cheered by many Democrats, none more so than Donnie Fowler, the Democratic strategist who decided to bring the system to South Carolina.

Fowler sees the system as part of a high-stakes Democratic shift to use technology to engage voters at both grassroots and national levels.

"Technology is proving to be perhaps the Democrats' answer to conservatives' talk radio," Fowler said. "If the Democrats don't adopt new technologies and new ways of organizing to complement the old traditional ways, then it's going to be harder to win elections in November from the presidency down to the dog catcher."

Fowler pointed to Howard Dean's online fundraising and liberal Web sites like MoveOn.org as examples of flourishing Democratic new technology ventures, and he counts the Iowa reporting system among those successes.

Dave Vogelaar and Andrew Brown, the twenty-something "techies" who developed the Iowa system and have since transplanted it to South Carolina, said the numbers speak for themselves.

The Iowa system delivered results from 85 percent of precincts by 9:30 p.m., with preliminary figures rolling in just a half hour after polls closed.

"I was shocked we were getting results as early as 7:30," said John Norris, Iowa director for Sen. John Kerry's campaign. "We're light years ahead of where we were 16 years ago."

But Vogelaar said he hopes to have the system's wrinkles ironed out for Super Tuesday.

A help line will be open to answer any questions about the system, and 40 operators will staff a "boiler room" for calling in results, Vogelaar said. Moreover, he will host four training sessions via conference call, and precinct chairs will get to test drive the system three times on primary day as they track the number of voters coming and going.

But Fowler said he's counting on the system's success and has already begun looking beyond the primaries to the general elections.

"It's a gargantuan task to open 2,000 polls and train everyone and get the materials out," Fowler said. "It shows the strength of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, and it's going to be a real asset for Inez Tennenbaum and all the other Democrats running for office in South Carolina come November."

With reporting by Peggy Collins, Medill News Service

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