It’s Touch and Go as Democrats Launch Electronic Vote System

ATLANTA —  The calling of the roll, a time-honored but time-consuming method of voting at the Democratic convention, was replaced Tuesday by high-tech electronic voting complete with some minor snafus.

In the past, voting was accomplished by having the convention secretary call the names of each state. The delegation chairman would announce how the delegates voted on platform issues, rules, credentials fights and the presidential and vice presidential nominations.

The procedure got the job done, but often with confused or hilarious results as vote totals were announced incorrectly or revised on the spot.

Extol State’s Virtues

In some cases, home state boosterism seemed more important that the vote count, as delegation chairmen preceded their vote announcement with lengthy statements extolling the virtues of their states.

In a first for either party, the Democrats this year switched to electronic voting, using equipment designed by the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. to record the votes cast during Tuesday’s platform debate.

Each state delegation has been supplied with a computer terminal that includes a push-button telephone. Delegation chairmen or their representatives operate the terminals, punching in vote results after collecting paper ballots from members of the delegation.

Tuesday’s votes were scheduled to take just 15 minutes, but the first vote, on a minority plank calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, lasted about 45 minutes, largely because of the time it took to collect and tally the paper ballots. Three of the largest delegations--California, Massachusetts and Illinois--were the last to record their votes with the computer system.

The delay was not a serious problem, however, because the convention was able to begin debate on the next minority plank while the balloting was under way, something that was not possible under the old system.

The party has, however, decided to stick with the old-fashioned, but more dramatic roll calls when the convention nominates its presidential candidate tonight and the vice presidential candidate Thursday night.