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Iowa caucus volunteers reportedly weren't given any training on how to use the voting app that caused the results to be delayed

Feb 5, 2020, 01:42 IST
  • Issues with a vote-relaying app used during the Iowa caucus delayed the voting results.
  • Precinct chairs never received app-specific training, according to The New York Times.
  • Nevada Democrats said on Tuesday that they would be using a different app for the Nevada caucus on February 22.

  • The "majority" of the Iowa caucus results are now expected to be released by 5pm ET on Tuesday.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A vote-relaying app used during the Iowa caucus Monday delayed the results after "coding issues" resulted in only some of the voting information being relayed to party leadership.

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But it was revealed on Tuesday that precinct chairs never received app-specific training, according to a report by The New York Times' Shane Goldmacher and Nick Corasaniti.

The app, launched two months ago by the company Shadow, was supposed to give faster results, but proved unhelpful as precinct chairs flooded the party's backup phone-reporting system after the app failed because of user errors, including download and connectivity issues.

Shadow published a statement on Tuesday saying it regretted the delay, and said the issue stemmed from "our process to transmit" the results data in the app to the Iowa Democratic Party.

"Once you hear the phrase 'trouble downloading today,' it is not the technology," Jeremy Bird, Obama's former political strategist said in a Tuesday tweet. "That is a training/planning/organizational problem. Should have had multiple dry runs & zero people should have been downloading anything on caucus night."

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The app was also not tested statewide or vetted by the Department of Homeland security according to The New York Times, although there's no evidence the app was compromised by any malicious outside party. The Iowa Democratic Party said in an earlier statement the app was not hacked.

Nevada Democrats said on Tuesday that they would be using a different app for the Nevada caucus on February 22.

The "majority" of the Iowa caucus results are now expected to be released by 5 pm ET on Tuesday.

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