Iowa Democrats Were Warned About App Problems Last Week, Says Report

Iowa Democrats were reportedly warned last week that there were serious problems with the app designed to report caucus results to the party. The app has been partially blamed for a deeply embarrassing night that left Iowa Democratic Party officials unable to declare results from Monday’s caucus. Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party, told The Washington Post that local officials had been aware of problems with the app since last Thursday. He said they had requested state officials resolve the issues before Monday’s caucus, but claimed they were referred to a “dedicated staffer” who was then unable to do anything to help. “We had had so many complaints about the app that we started telling our chairs that if they were having problems with the app then you should call in the results,” Bagniewski said. Officials reportedly received no training on how to use the app, struggled to download it or log in, and were placed on hold for as long as two hours when they tried to call the result in via a hotline when the app failed.