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Four days later, the Iowa Caucuses have finally finished. Yet, we're just now seeing the results. What the hell happened?

As an Iowan (and a Software Engineer), I was disappointed to hear it was a failure by technology. I was surprised that our tech community would have let this happen. So, I did a little digging.

If you don't read anything else in this article, know that:

To understand the full story, we have to first go back to 2016.

2016 Election

After the close race in 2016, new reporting standards were introduced to provide more clarity on the caucus numbers. Precinct leaders were now required to submit three numbers – including the number of backers on the first and second alignment. Previously, they only had to submit one.

There are over 1,600 precincts in the state of Iowa.

This change meant it would take longer to gather the data on the night of the caucus. So naturally, party leaders looked for a solution. Is there a tech solution that will simplify the reporting process and improve our confidence in the results?

The App

Enter Shadow

Enter Shadow, a Denver based company contracted to build a reporting app for precinct leaders. This app would simplify the reporting process to allow caucus results to be submitted the same night, even with the heightened reporting standards.

Why not hire developers in Iowa? (Hint: Money).

In my opinion, this was the first failure by Democratic party leadership. There are plenty of development shops in Iowa which could have executed flawlessly. But, hindsight is 20/20. So what happened?

What Went Wrong

The night before the caucuses, the Iowa Democratic Party chair seemed pretty confident.

In reality, some of the precinct chairs weren't able to test the voting app until a few weeks before the caucuses. As you can imagine, that didn't turn out well.