  The ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) is a photometric and spectroscopic
study of the galaxy cluster population at two epochs, z~0.5 and z~0.8, drawn
from the Las Campanas Distant Cluster Survey (LCDCS). We report results from
the initial candidate confirmation stage of the program and use these results
to probe the properties of the LCDCS. Of the 30 candidates targeted, we find
statistically significant overdensities of red galaxies near 28. Of the ten
additional candidates serendipitously observed within the fields of the
targeted 30, we detect red galaxy overdensities near six. We test the
robustness of the published LCDCS estimated redshifts to misidentification of
the brighest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the survey data, and measure the spatial
alignment of the published cluster coordinates, the peak red galaxy
overdensity, and the brightest cluster galaxy. We conclude that for LCDCS
clusters out to z~0.8, 1) the LCDCS coordinates agree with the centroid of the
red galaxy overdensity to within 25'' (~150 h^{-1} kpc) for 34 out of 37
candidates with 3\sigma galaxy overdensities, 2) BCGs are typically coincident
with the centroid of the red galaxy population to within a projected separation
of 200 h^{-1} kpc (32 out of 34 confirmed candidates), 3) the red galaxy
population is strongly concentrated, and 4) the misidentification of the BCG in
the LCDCS causes a redshift error >0.1 in 15-20% of the LCDCS candidates. These
findings together help explain the success of the surface brightness
fluctuations detection method.
