Local delegates critique online GOP convention

Due to the threat of the Coronavirus, the Republican state nominating convention was recently held in cyberspace with delegates voting for candidates online.

CACHE COUNTY – Members of the Cache County Council have given their political party’s first-ever virtual nominating convention a qualified “thumbs up.”

Council members who were delegates to the GOP state convention on April 25 admitted there were a few hiccups in the online credentialing and voting processes, but were still generally positive about a convention experience that was like no other.

“I liked it,” said David L. Erickson, who – with other council members – participated in the convention from the comfort of his own home simply by logging onto the State Republican Party’s website.

In previous leap years, thousands of selected GOP state delegates gathered in Salt Lake City to hear candidate speeches, collect campaign swag and voice their opinions of Republican hopefuls in seemingly endless rounds of voting. With statewide social distancing guidelines in effect due to the Coronavirus, their party’s most recent convention was held in cyberspace over a three-day period concluding on April 25.

Erickson said that he appreciated being able to review the pre-recorded candidate speeches posted on the GOP website at this own time and pace.

“I feel like this was the first convention where I could really vet all the candidates … This was much better than spending all day in Salt Lake trying on tee-shirts and ending up with a parking ticket,” he quipped.

Council Vice Chair Gina H. Worthen agreed that the online convention was a better use of delegates’ time than an old-fashioned daylong gathering.

Council member Gordon A. Zilles praised the GOP’s decision to extend the convention to three days, since that provided ample time for him to resolve a glitch in the online credentialing process that initially prevented him from voting.

Council member Jon White experienced a similar problem with the commercial Voatz software application that was used to facilitate the convention voting process and was never able to resolve the issue.

“I finally had to vote by making a phone call,” White explained.

White was by no means the only delegate blocked from voting by technical glitches and red tape. The convention voting was slated to close at 5 p.m. on April 25, but was extended until 8:30 p.m. by State Party Chair Derek Brown to accommodate call-in voting by numerous delegates. That extension of the voting period delayed announcement of the final convention results via a live video feed on Facebook into the early hours of April 26.

During the more than three-hour wait for those results, Brown joked and played a piano while statewide Facebook users chatted online about their views of the virtual convention. The delegates’ comments were generally good-natured, with most expressing approval of being able to participate in the convention without making long drives to Salt Lake City. They also praised the ranked-choice voting methodology used by the Voatz application to eliminate the need for repetitive rounds of voting for candidates.

Council chair Karl B. Ward said he was disappointed that he was never notified of the convention winners, discovering only later that those results were announced via Facebook Live.

“I think everything went well,” Ward acknowledged, “but announcing the convention results over Facebook isn’t a good idea. Not everybody uses Facebook.”

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