The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) said an issue with the app used to transmit data from precincts to the party led to a delay in releasing the results of the Iowa Caucus.
On Monday, thousands of Iowans went to caucus for their preferred candidate in the first contest of the 2020 presidential primary. But shortly after the first results were expected to be released, it became clear that something odd had occurred.
Party officials said they were not releasing the results because they were conducting a “quality control” process, but did not provide much more information at the time.
The first official statement the party released said, “We have experienced a delay,” but did not elaborate as to why.
Just in: Our first official statement from the Iowa Democratic Party.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 4, 2020
The big news here is TURNOUT. They say it's on pace for 2016, which is LOW. 172,000 turned out in then, down from the record-high of 240,000 in 2008. pic.twitter.com/MXGBKO64gc
A little while after that statement, the party disclosed that it had “found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” but said the issue was not the result of a hack.
“The underlying data and paper trail is sound, and will simply take further time to report the results,” the statement continued.
More from the Iowa Democratic Party on the results delay: “We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results.”
— POLITICO (@politico) February 4, 2020
Live analysis: https://t.co/8gbQsUzps0 pic.twitter.com/XIzFV010Yx
On Tuesday morning, the Iowa Democratic Party released a statement that gave more details about what happened with the app, and maintained the error was not the result of a hack.
“We have every indication that our systems were secure, and there was not a cybersecurity intrusion,” the statement read.
“It became clear that there were inconsistencies with the reports. The underlying cause of these inconsistencies was not immediately clear, and required investigation, which took time.”
NEW statement from @iowademocrats — "While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system." pic.twitter.com/kOXdcvggoe
— Maura Barrett (@MauraBarrettNBC) February 4, 2020
The statement continued to say that a “coding issue” led the app to report “only partial data.”
“While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system.”
However, because of the “required paper documentation,” officials were able to verify that the results are “valid and accurate.” Party officials said they are still receiving results from the various precincts but hope to release the results on Tuesday.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the app was developed in just two months and was not tested on a statewide level.
According to the Times, Democratic officials adopted the plan to use the app after a previous suggestion — having results transmitted over the phone — was scrapped.
Additionally, some precincts reported having trouble with the app, but party officials said most of those issues were related to users have trouble downloading the app or signing in.
The Times reports that the company that developed the app, Shadow Inc., has also been used by the Nevada Democratic Party — which holds the next caucus — and some 2020 presidential campaigns.
According to sources, the Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman said there will be a “majority” of the results expected by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
