Iowa’s caucus is the first in the nation, but Iowa is also the first state trying out new technology during the election process.
“We are going to lead the nation,” both in terms of the election and in terms of technology, said Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann.
“The new reporting system announced today continues Iowa’s long-standing bipartisan tradition of leading the nation in advanced election technology,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Dr. Andy McGuire.
On Friday, both the Iowa Democratic and Republican parties announced at a press conference that the 2016 caucus results will be sent to Iowans “via a new, mobile-enabled, cloud-based platform that will allow for accurate, efficient and secure reporting on caucus night.”
The new technology, built by Microsoft, will have a mobile app for both political parties that allows precincts to submit the results in a secure way—directly to the party’s headquarters.
Both parties will also have a separate results verification app that allows staff at the party headquarters to monitor the results as they arrive in real time.
Kauffman said the media would also provide a source for crosschecking.
He said the change isn’t being made because of any past complaints but because Iowa is “looking forward.”
There will be organizational meetings, starting in June, to plan for the technology change.
Dan’l Lewin, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, told Breitbart News that right now Iowa is the only state implementing the technology, but it may come to others in the future.
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