DNC chair says app used in Iowa won't be used in other primary states
Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tom Perez said Tuesday that the app blamed for delaying the results of the Iowa caucuses will not be used in the remaining primary contests.
"It is clear that the app in question did not function adequately," Perez said in a statement. The app was created by Shadow Inc., a company based in Washington, D.C.
"It will not be used in Nevada or anywhere else during the primary election process. The technology vendor must provide absolute transparent accounting of what went wrong," he added.
Shadow, a company affiliated with Democratic nonprofit group Acronym, sold an app built to transmit results to the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP).
After results were delayed Monday night — triggering uproar from candidates and supporters — the IDP blamed a “coding issue” in the app.
IDP chairman Troy Price stressed in a statement Tuesday that “there was not a cyber security intrusion” into the caucus.
“As part of our investigation, we determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound,” he continued. “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.”
After increasing scrutiny of the app, the Nevada Democratic Party canceled plans to use the app built by Shadow for its caucuses.
"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 Democratic Party Chairman William McCurdy said in a statement.
Some other state parties have made payments to Shadow, according to Federal Election Commission Data.
The Texas Democratic Party also paid Shadow $250 for a “texting platform” and “online productivity tools,” according to Federal Election Commission data.
An official for the party told The Hill that the “contract was not for app development or website services.”
The Wisconsin Democratic Party in November paid Shadow $3,750. An official for the state party told The Hill the payment was for a peer-to-peer text messaging service.
