Shock: Iowa Caucus Disaster App Not Working in Nevada, Either

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Democratic leaders in Nevada have experienced glitches while testing an app made by Shadow Inc., the same company behind the Iowa caucus fiasco, according to a new report.

Vice News’ Motherboard reported that volunteers in Nevada encountered the errors when trying to submit test caucus results. Motherboard cited an anonymous source and said it also reviewed the app. Democratic officials in Nevada announced earlier this week that they won’t be using the app during the state’s caucus set to take place on February 22.

The tech firm Shadow, Inc. created the malfunctioning app at the center of the Iowa caucuses. A glitch in the software impeded the reporting of caucus results late Monday, creating a major embarrassment for party leaders.

Shadow has direct ties to Democratic party establishment figures and is facing accusations that its leaders are biased against non-establishment candidates, particularly Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

The firm is headed by several former campaign staffers for Hillary Clinton, while he firm’s parent organization — the non-profit group ACRONYM — has ties to Barack Obama and its CEO is reportedly married to Michael Halle, a senior strategist with the Pete Buttigieg campaign.

The Intercept reported earlier this week that ACRONYM leaders regularly made hostile remarks about supporters of Sen. Sanders.

Motherboard said Friday that volunteers in Nevada who used the app were presented with a dashboard letting them submit how many caucus attendees they wished to add for each candidate. A pop-up window then asked, “Are you sure you want to submit the first alignment? Please ensure all in-person participant counts are correct before confirming.”

But submitting the counts for the first alignment did not work, according to Motherboard.  “Error,” a second pop-up said. “Could not submit alignment.”

A Shadow spokesperson told Motherboard that “because the deadline for the Nevada app was later, Shadow’s Nevada app was still in beta testing, and that testing identified some errors that were being fixed.”

Shadow also said that the app was on track for a “successful rollout” with the Nevada Democratic Party.

Shadow’s statement appears to contradict what Democratic leaders in Nevada said earlier this week when announcing that they would no longer use the same app or vendor as the Iowa caucus.

“NV Dems can confidently say that what happened in the Iowa caucus last night will not happen in Nevada on February 22nd. We will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus,” Nevada State Democratic Party Chairman William McCurdy said in a statement.

“We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”

Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com

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