There in 19 seconds? Not exactly…

In this morning’s Senate debate on SB 1108, the bill to require signatures from 6 percent of voters in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts in order to qualify an initiative or referendum measure for the Idaho ballot, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis said it only took him 19 seconds to find his legislative district on his IPad, disputing arguments that most voters don’t know their districts and it would be hard to determine them while gathering petition signatures. Twin Falls Times-News reporter Melissa Davlin decided to try it out for herself.

She reasoned that most voters accosted by signature-gatherers would have only their phones, not tablets or laptop computers. So she tried checking on her smart phone. Her first try didn’t work, as she tried to access the Idaho Secretary of State’s website. “I tried for four minutes to connect to the site, but my cell wouldn’t load the page,” Davlin reports. Her second try took about three minutes, but was successful. “Another reporter in the newsroom took 1 minute, 17 seconds on her iPhone,” Davlin reports, adding parenthetically, “Perhaps I should upgrade.” You can read her full post here .