Iowa Caucus Problems Stem From App Started by Former Hillary Clinton Staffers
“The app wasn’t included in the chair training that everyone was required to take.”
![https://youtu.be/ViAAwc0BtiE](https://c4.legalinsurrection.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Hillary-Clinton-Hulu-Series.jpg)
Everything I write about in this post will no doubt add to conspiracy theories surrounding the Iowa caucuses.
After all, it centers around failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The App at the Center of Ruckus
Let’s first look at the app to count votes used by the Democratic Party. The people behind the app used to work for Hillary’s campaign:
- CEO Gerard Niemira
- Product manager Ahna Rao
- CTO Krista Davis
- COO James Hickey
The caucus app blamed for the Iowa vote count chaos was created by tech firm Shadow, Inc.
Shadow’s CEO Gerard Niemira, product manager Ahna Rao, CTO Krista Davis, and COO James Hickey all worked on the Hillary for America campaign. pic.twitter.com/hA0JPYX5Ig
— Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) February 4, 2020
The firm Shadow developed the app, which is “an affiliate of ACRONYM, a Democratic nonprofit founded in 2017 ‘to educate, inspire, register, and mobilize voters,’ according to its website.”
Sources told The New York Times that people put together the app “in just the past two months.”
The party decided to use the app after the Democratic National Committee officials decided not to allow “participants call in their votes over the phone.”
Plus Democratic officials did not tell anyone about Shadow’s involvement in the caucuses.
Does it shock anyone that the party will use the app in the Nevada caucuses? Yeah, didn’t think so.
Major Coding Errors
The Iowa Democratic Party insists no one hacked or intruded the app. Instead, a major coding error caused problems:
As part of our investigation, we determined with certainty that the underlying data collected via the app was sound. 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. This issue was identified and fixed. The application’s reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately.
Because of the required paper documentation, we have been able to verify that the data recorded in the app and used to calculate State Delegate Equivalents is valid and accurate. Precinct level results are still being reported to the IDP. While our plan is to release results as soon as possible today, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the integrity and accuracy of the process continues to be upheld.
No App Training
For some stupid reason, the Democratic Party did not include app training for the caucus chairs. They claim they did, but others disagree:
Linda Nelson, a Democratic caucus chair in Pottawattamie County, tells CNN that precinct chairs did not receive training because the app wasn’t ready.
Zach Simons, the party chair in Wapello county, told The New York Times: “The app wasn’t included in the chair training that everyone was required to take.”
In Des Moines, Polk County Democratic Chairman Sean Bagniewski told CNN that app problems actually surfaced last week during testing. When some precinct chairs reported trouble last Thursday, Bagniewski he told those who couldn’t get the app to work to call in their results to the Iowa Democratic Party as they had in previous years.
“When you have an app that you’re sending out to 1,700 people and many of them might be newer to apps and that kind of stuff, it might have been worth doing a couple months’ worth of testing,” Bagniewski told The New York Times.
Other Problems
Iowa State Senator Pam Jochum chaired precinct 14 in Dubuque. She said the caucus went smoothly, but she never used the app because she could not download it. To top things off she said she “could not get support from party officials to resolve issues with the app up to a week before the caucuses.”
They were too busy to help Jochum.
Bill Brauch, caucus chair for precinct 59, had to use a backchannel:
But on the night of the caucus, about 30 minutes before counting began, Brauch tested it again and a “glitch” made it so that only the left side of his iPad keyboard popped up, meaning he could only type numbers and letters on the left. That, obviously, made it impossible to use.
Brauch called the Democratic Party hotline and was told to change on setting and “unload the app and then reload it.”
“That required me to access my Apple password, which I did not have with me, so at that point that app wasn’t on my iPad,” he said with a slight laugh, meaning when people began caucusing at his site, they had no app to use.
Brauch then turned to the traditional way – over the phone – but was initially put on hold for 15 minutes before hanging up.
He then opted to use a backchannel he had to the Iowa Democratic Party’s boiler room. His caucus secretary knew someone in the room, so she called the person and they reported the data that way – via a backchannel, not on the official hotline.
“We were lucky that we had that inside person,” he said. “We had unique access because of that relationship.”
“The whole thing is disappointing to me,” he said. “The caucus itself ran smoothly, the new slightly revised rules and the presidential preference cards were not a problem, we found a way to do it in a way that was organized. And people had a good experience at the caucus.”
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Comments
She who cackles last…
Yes, and it’s not conspiracy when its true.
The Holocaust was no conspiracy, it was fact.
The picture of Hillary standing with her arms outstretched and saying something, is she saying:
a. this is how much I love you
b. this is how much money I’ve stolen
c. please help me I’m falling
d. my depends are this full
When the lower part of her eyeballs start to turn color you know that she is full of it.
Q. Mr President, what is the best thing for relief when you’re under pressure.
A. Depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is.
Q. And Mrs Clinton, same question.
A. Depends.
That’s what she does when she has to pee and is trying to hold it.
Hillary Clinton: “How corrupt am I? This corrupt!”
e. “This is how much You all are screwed!”
Are we sure that photo of Hillary at the beginning wasn’t photo-shopped? Her head doesn’t quite line up with her body.
Damned Clintons are like a herpes virus.
Worse. You can eliminate the symptoms as long as you take your meds.
There seems to be no cure for the Clintons except the grim reaper.
The Grim Reaper does not even want the Clintons. Thisis why they continue to plague us.
With all of the blatant conspiracies being revealed these days, are we ready to finally stop dismissing those who report them as “conspiracy theorists?” By now, assuming a conspiracy should be the default position until proven otherwise.
Way way back someone incorrectly used the term conspiracy theorist when they should have said conspiracy hypothesist. “Conspiracy theorist” is frequently used pejoratively to dismiss someone’s claims, but a theory is viewpoint which is supported by a significant amount of valid data. When the data becomes conclusive, it then ascends to being considered “a law.” To illustrate how scientists are conservative (excluding the climate science posers), we are still operating with a “theory of relativity.” To call someone a conspiracy theorist is to actually give them some validation. Perhaps we should start to call them theoretical conspiracists, to assign them a dignity given to, say, a class of physicists. To be truly dismissive of someone, their speculation should be degraded to the level of a hypothesis, which is just a fancy way of saying “wild ass guess.” I frequently frame my viewpoints here as a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess) to illustrate that I have a hunch based on some anecdotal observations but as yet have no real proof. Oberlin is a good example of that, because there are too many intersecting plausible explanations for that mess to be able to state that one is true (part of me thinks that all of them are true to a degree).
When it comes to the DNC favoring one candidate over another, that is basically admitted fact.
Damn coal miners! Can’t code for schiff.
bernie can’t be allowed to win and pick up momentum so the app is a political kill switch until the dnc can figure out how to rig this thing and get rid of comrade bernie. Bottom line is the dems are on a horrendous losing streak while PDJT keeps winning.
These caucuses are out dated and should be stopped. The Parties should agree to use updated means of voting and stop this crap.
On top of that, why oh why does IOWA get top billing?
An area that is more reflective of the country should be used as the first primary. Instead we get corn farmers and New England Hillbillies as our guides.
Nonsense.
Who goes first, second, etc. should be on a random basis without even the parties knowing until 3 or 4 days before?
#learn2code
I heard Sniff and Sadler already set up a committee and issued subpoenas for the second impeachment dealing with Iowa voting irregularities 😉
I’m waiting to hear how they’re going to blame this one on Trump. Or the Russians.
Crony capitalism at its best. Raiding the party coffers for the swamp.
And people had a good experience at the caucus.
Well, sure, in a “de lamentations of de wimmen” sort of way.
I watched about 15 minutes of the West Des Moines caucus on CSPAN. There’s nothing wonderful in spend a few hours with terminally fugly women on a Monday night.
These tablulating “problems,” delay in reporting, Biden campaign has “concerns”
= Joe must of really, really sunk into the crater.
There have been postings that Mayor Pete’s “digital director” is married to one of the principals of Shadow.
Please tell me that digital here refers to computers and such. 🙁
Hey, with a screen-name like that I’d refrain from cracking those sorts of jokes if I were you.
Colonel Major Wood was my Accounting 101 professor and I was scared sh*tless of her ?
Sounds like Mayor Pete’s “digital director” forgot to proctor….
Things are heating up for another coin-toss contest!
Read on Brietbrt that the software/consulting company who developed the APP is called “Shadow” … funny name for something that supposed to be open and transparent … (grin) …
A coin toss of the “Heads I win, Tails you lose” variety?
I think when it was between Clinton and Obama, it was “Heads I win, tails we flip again”. Same difference.
It’s clearly a coincidence. /sarc
The party of “I’m So Smart” wins again
It’s not often that people should follow Slow Joe Biden’s advice, but the people at Shadow, Inc. should “learn to code.”
Imagine what a mess we’d be in if Hillary was president.
If it ain’t a paper ballot, it’s fraud on its face.
How’s that Democrat Caucus coning?
Numbers yet???
There is more than a coding problem. It’s Wednesday morning and the totals are not final. These Dems/Progs had to know math is involved in counting.
When the Hildebeast wakes up, watch out for Arkancide.