The Oakland Press plans to bring readers three hours of live primary election night coverage on Aug. 3.

It will be a first such event for the newspaper. Through a process called “livestreaming,” we’ll be appearing live on your computer screen from 9 p.m. to midnight. All you have to do is log on to our website at www.theoaklandpress.com to watch us as we monitor and report the latest election results.

I will be moderator for the evening, which will include visits from several local political figures. So far Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson is expected to drop by as are State Rep. Chuck Moss, R-Birmingham, and Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills. In addition, we expect to have Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson stop in.

From time to time throughout the night we’ll have our local reporters sit in and discuss the results as they are tabulated. Staffers will also review the figures and give their analysis of why or why not an election went the way it did.

We’re cautiously excited about doing this. If the “dress rehearsal” conducted this past Tuesday is any indication, the election night programming should go very well because this week’s practice session was anything but smooth. We ended up actually going online for about 40 minutes — and that’s a problem when you have nothing prepared.

Executive Editor Glenn Gilbert, myself and Political Reporter Charlie Crumm drew deeply upon our political knowledge as we ad-libbed our way through the rehearsal while the technicians checked out the equipment and made sure everything was working.

As every “bad” dress rehearsal should do, it taught us a few things. Probably the biggest lesson is something we've always known but it was definitely reinforced this week — nothing beats advanced preparation and planning if you want something to go smoothly.