- Iowa precinct chairs are reportedly having trouble using the new mobile app for reporting caucus results that was rolled out by the Iowa Democratic Party for this year's caucus.
- The issues could delay the counting of the votes in Iowa by a few hours, according to Bloomberg.
- The Iowa Democratic Party doesn't expect that there will be any problems with the accuracy of results, and doesn't believe there are any cybersecurity issues with the app.
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The results of the first 2020 Democratic primary could be delayed by a number of hours Monday night in Iowa, where local officials are having trouble using a new mobile app for reporting caucus results, Bloomberg first reported.
The Iowa caucus is comprised of nearly 1,700 caucus sites, each of which must report the results of its caucus to the Iowa Democratic Party. Results were previously reported via call-in number, but the party rolled out a new smartphone app for reporting results this year.
According to Bloomberg, several precinct chairs were struggling to download and log into the app as of Monday afternoon. The Iowa Democratic Party told Bloomberg it was aware of the issues and was assisting precinct chairs, and that precinct chairs will be able to call in results via secure hotline as a backup.
Security experts previously dinged the app as a liability. University of Iowa computer science professor Douglas Jones told The Wall Street Journal in January that the idea of a smartphone app for reporting voting results is a "security nightmare." A Democratic Party spokesperson told Bloomberg that there had not been any reports related to cybersecurity issues on Monday.
The Iowa Democratic Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Little is known about the app itself - the Iowa Democratic Party has declined to name the vendor who built the app, citing security concerns. Security experts have criticized that decision, arguing that it only served to prevent public oversight of the caucus process.