EMPIRE DIGITAL SIGNS AT THE DNC: PART 2

KEVIN KWASNESKI | PHILADELPHIA, PA | JULY 23rd- 24th

Last month, our team had the privilege of facilitating the Democratic National Convention during, arguably, one of the most unique election years of recent history. Our Integration Engineer Kevin Kwasneski traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Friday June 22nd to continue our work with the same Audience Response System used for the DNC Platform Committee Hearing. Below is Kevin’s personal account of Empire Digital Signs’ role at the convention:

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Saturday July 23rd

When I got to the actual event on Saturday morning there was a huge security presence, which was rightfully so, police on every corner, metal detectors, and guards. I was not let into the event without a staff badge, meaning not just anyone could attend. Even guests were issued badges. The meeting room was empty, but I could already see people lining up at the doors before they opened. There were delegates, about 187 of them to be exact, press photographers and videographers, and guests who were seated towards the back of the room.

From what I was told the voting process would be fairly easy, the delegates would raise their hands or yell yes or no to respond. The electronic clickers would only be used when the vote was too close to tell and they needed an exact count. However, the protests coming from lobby were so loud that they nearly drown out the PA system. To remedy this the head chairman announced there would be no more voting by voice. Instead, everything was to be done on our electronic clickers.

This proved to be a bit of a task, the room was very long and the receiver was down low in my computer at the back of the room. Sufficient for a few key votes, but certainly needed to be remedied if the clickers would be needed for every vote. With the help of the AV team and some quick thinking, I attached the receiver to a microphone stand on top of the table with a USB extension and was able to elevate it high enough that the entire audience could see it and so there would be no interference.

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Pictured: live results coming in to the big screen via electronic clickers.

 

The Big Vote

The big major issue at this convention was super-delegates; moments before I hit the road for Philly documents had been released that lead Sanders supporters to believe that super-delegates and the DNC had a hand in undermining Sander’s campaign so Clinton would become the Democratic nominee. Tensions were particularly high, protests were loud and our system would be used to determine whether or not the Democratic party would push to eliminate the use of the super-delegate system.

Since the decision was made to use the electronic clickers the delegates and guests, everyone could watch the live results. As the no’s for dissolving super-delegates kept piling up the booing grew louder. The question was actually polled twice to ensure the results were completely accurate. The final result was a landslide in favor of keeping the super-delegate system in place. Emotions were running high and the head chairman decided to call a recess. After three hours of deliberation a compromise was reached between the two parties on the super-delegate issue. Luckily things became much calmer in the room after that issue was resolved.


Sunday July 24th

Sunday was very different, I was informed there would only be seven items to vote on opposed to Saturday’s thirty-eight. The morning of that meeting I was told that some of the seven had been combined and the total was now four. As a whole this conference seemed much less tense than the previous day. There was no really “hot issue,” but there was an important one none the less. A female delegate was forced to resign based on  her state being “out of balance.” Meaning 15 female and 15 male delegates. She was then replaced by a male who was not an alternate delegate. Eventually she would be reinstated with a clicker vote.

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Over all, our audience response system proved to be very handy, but completely necessary for the Democratic National Convention. This year in paticular. It was clear that the democratic party were committed to ensuring accurate, documented, and real time results. The weekend had been an experience I will never forget, I got to be part of history in the making. It was surreal to be a part of something I had always read about in the news or watched on TV. July was a proud time to be a part of the EDS team.