They built that! To no one’s surprise, the DNC was heavily involved in the development of the crashing Iowa caucus app.

“While the Democratic National Committee over the past 10 days has tried to distance itself from the troubled app that threw the results of the Iowa caucuses into disarray, a copy of the contract and internal correspondence provided to Yahoo News demonstrates that national party officials had extensive oversight over the development of the technology.”

What a SHOCK! No, not really. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that the DNC had their fingers all over this app development.

The contract, furnished to Yahoo News, very clearly outlined that the DNC demanded full oversight on the design and implementation of the app. Shadow wouldn’t have gotten the contract if they refused to agree to DNC oversight. 

“The contract also specifies that Shadow agrees to “provide DNC continual access to review the Consultant’s system configurations, security and system logs, system designs, data flow designs, security controls (preventative and detective), and operational plans for how the Consultant will use and run the Software for informational dissemination, pre-registration, tabulation, and reporting throughout the caucus process.””

The DNC wanted full access to the Shadow development for one specific reason. Security testing. Yet they refused an offer from DHS to test the program. Hmmm.

Just a couple of days after the Iowa Caucus when it became excruciatingly clear that the debacle was due, in large part, to an app that hadn’t been tested, DNC Chair Tom Perez threw shade at Iowa Dems.

Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.

— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) February 6, 2020

According to Tim, the caucus was a failure because of the incompetence of the Iowa Democrats!! While the vote totals are in, it is still unclear as to who the actual winner is.

That didn’t stop Tom Perez from continuing to tap dance his way through the mess.

Oh how wonderful! He understands that is was Troy Price’s fault! The blame continued for Price, so much so that he announced his resignation yesterday. This from his resignation letter.

“”However, there is no doubt that the process of reporting results did not work,” Price said. “It was simply unacceptable. It is why I called for an independent review of the decisions and processes that (led) to this failure. While this process is just beginning, know that the IDP is not the only party to blame for what happened last week. We worked collaboratively with our partners, our vendors, and the DNC in this process, and I am confident the review will be able to determine exactly what went wrong, what went right and how we can avoid this from ever happening again.””

Ahhh, so they worked together with the DNC on this entire process. Hmmmm, want to bet that it was someone pissed off at the DNC throwing Iowa under the bus that led to Yahoo obtaining the contract?

Here’s the kicker to all of this. The app was introduced to Iowa by… the Nevada Democrat party! Therefore, they have all their ducks in a row, correct? Not. So. Fast. 

“Election volunteers in the state have yet to receive training for the iPads they will use on caucus day — or specific details about what the process’ electronic “Caucus Tool” is and how it will ultimately be used.”

Wait what? No training on the app. Oh wait, it’s a tool NOT an app? Does that sounds confusing to you? Sure does to me. Imagine what the Nevada precinct chairs are dealing with right now!

As a backup to their app, Nevada precinct captains will use paper ballots and count them by hand.

Because, just like in Iowa, the Caucus Night app they plan to use has not been tested at scale.https://t.co/Rs6tv2XfK4

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 13, 2020

The not an app TOOL hasn’t even been tested to scale??!! Every IT developer I know has been cringing at this debacle and also thrilled that they are nowhere near this train wreck!

The DNC had FOUR YEARS to get someone to build a cool not an app TOOL that would supposedly streamline the caucuses.

Instead, what Iowa and Nevada have ended up with is one big fat LEMON of an app.

Want to know how tone deaf the Democrats are as to how devastating this story is for them?

As @thedemocrats Chair said of the Shadow/ Acronym vendor, there must be complete transparency to determine what went wrong with the Iowa Caucus app.

Also we need procurement and contracting reforms at the DNC to win trust and elections in 2020. https://t.co/4LozNEDEIQ

— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) February 14, 2020

Yes folks, that was from Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. The article makes it CLEAR the DNC was thoroughly involved in the development of this failure. Yet Christine calls for procurement and contracting reforms? Wow.

As of today, it is very clear. The DNC is GREAT at building failures (Hi Hillary!) aren’t they?

Feature Photo Credit: Pexels Android Apps Launcher via Pixabay, cropped and modified