GREMLINS IN THE MACHINE

Iowa Democrats Blame ‘Coding Issue’ for Caucus App Disaster

The party chairman said he’s certain their systems were secure and the issues were not due to a “cybersecurity intrusion.”

The Iowa Democratic Party has blamed its failure to produce the results of Monday night’s caucuses on a coding problem in the app it had designed to report results back to the party. In a statement from party Chairman Troy Price, Iowa Democrats said they’re certain that their systems were secure and the issues were not due to a “cybersecurity intrusion.” Price said results had been accurately collected by the app, but a coding error meant they were not being reported correctly. “We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system,” Price said. “This issue was identified and fixed. The applications reporting issue did not impact the ability of precinct chairs to report data accurately.” Price went on: “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.”