App issues impede reporting at Iowa satellite caucus in Port Charlotte

Chaos and confusion have hung over Iowa since Monday night when an app failed and caucus sites could not turn in results; but, Iowa is not the only place where the technology failed. App issues happened during the satellite caucus that was held in Port Charlotte, creating a series of problems.

While it is too early to call the winner, former Midwestern Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are leading. Trailing them are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Susan Hegland, the Iowa caucus secretary, inputs data into the new app we keep hearing about. While the night appeared to move smoothly, finishing up in less than two hours, the caucus in Port Charlotte cleared many hurdles. Most importantly, the app. But the app, which was made by Shadow Inc., did not work when it mattered.

Among a series of Tweets, Shadow said:

“We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night’s Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers.”

Campaign finance records show the Iowa Democratic Party spent around $60,000 on the app.

“We had tried to log into the app the day before to try it out, and I kept getting invalid password,” Hegland said. “So we called in and it said oh, it won’t work until tomorrow.”

It turns out the Port Charlotte event proved to be a bad sign of things to come in Iowa. At the end of the night, Hegland called in the results.

“It would have been nice if we could have tried it out the day before,” Hegland said.

The Iowa caucus secretary told WINK News that somethings do not work the first time around. The question is will there be a next time.