The app designed by Shadow, Inc. to report results in the upcoming Nevada Caucus experienced technical malfunctions in testing even before the company’s Iowa app caused severe delays in reporting that state’s results, Vice’s Motherboard reported on Friday.
Nevada Democratic Party volunteers had been testing the app since early January and up to this week. When volunteers attempted to submit results for the first alignment, the app presented an “error” message.
“Because the deadline for the Nevada app was later, Shadow’s Nevada app was still in beta testing, and that testing identified some errors that were being fixed,” a company spokesperson told Motherboard. The spokesperson said the app had been on track for a “successful rollout.”
Nevada will hold its caucus on February 22. After the results of the Iowa Caucus were delayed by systemic technical malfunctions with the Democratic Party’s reporting app, Nevada Democrats announced they would not use the app built for them by Shadow.
“NV Dems can confidently say that what happened in the Iowa caucus last night will not happen in Nevada on February 22,” Nevada State Democratic Party Chair William McCurdy said on Tuesday. “We will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus. We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”
The severe delay in results from Iowa has caused acrimony among Democratic Party officials. Several state officials have expressed their displeasure with Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez for what they view as insufficient backing for the party’s Iowa head Troy Price. Two Democratic representatives have also indicated Perez should resign over his response to the Iowa crisis.