Election-night party planned downtown

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON News Editor for the Southern Standard

Warren County will be bringing back an old tradition this year, according to WCPI radio personality and County Commissioner Bill Zechman. Election in the Park, an event which was popular in the first half of the 20th century, and revived here the 1960s, will be back again this year. On election day, May 2, county residents who want to gather on the court square in downtown McMinnville will be treated to a large tote board with the election results posted as they come in from the various precincts.

?It started off as a revival of an earlier tradition,? Zechman said, ?when people gathered in the courthouse square, and this was duplicated all over the United States, because the courthouse was the hub of government, and really society, in American rural communities, and people would gather around to follow the election results.

?But with the development of radio and television people could stay at home and hear the results on radio and watch them on television, so that old tradition faded. But in the 1960s with McMinnville?s first FM radio station, which was operated by FM broadcasting pioneer Charles Nelson Rone, a local attorney, that tradition was revived, but then lapsed again, until now.?

WCPI public radio will broadcast the event live beginning at 6:30 p.m. and will continue until all the results are in. There will also be election commentary from a panel of local news reporters and political analysts. Candidates are also invited to make an appearance and speak to the radio audience and their supporters.

?Our plans call for having each of the voting stations staffed with volunteers from the Noon Exchange Club and Motlow State Community College,? Zechman said.

The event will be held in front of the Chamber of Commerce building downtown. The Chamber will be hosting the remote broadcast operations. The election results will be hot off the voting machines, according to Zechman. There are 21 precincts, 22 with early voting counted, and Zechman says early voting totals will actually start out the coverage. The polls are slated to close at 7 p.m.

?We?re going out to the actual precincts,? Zechman said, ?and we?re going to be collecting information from there. We?ll be sending that in by cell phone to the nerve-center of our election headquarters at the Chamber, and we?ll be tabulating those results instantly, as they come in.?

Dr. Norman Rone, president of Warren County Education Foundation, which owns and operates WCPI, says he is pleased to see this tradition have a revival.

?I think it?s a great idea,? said Dr. Rone. ? I really do. I kind of miss it. We used to do that years ago in the park. I remember when Charles Rone started up WHNR years ago, they sort of innovated that whole concept and they did it on a regular basis, then it sort of died out. So I think it would be a great idea, especially now with the park as pretty as it is.?

The event will be sponsored by WCPI public radio, 91.3 on your dial, the Southern Standard and McMinnville Noon Exchange.