Local officials in the Iowa Democratic Party had warned party leaders days before the caucus that the app to report voting results had serious problems.
“We knew the app was a problem last Thursday,” Sean Bagniewski, the Polk County Democratic Party chair, told the Washington Post. “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 that state party members referred local officials to a staffer who was working to solve the problems with the app, however that staffer was not able to do so. State officials did not train county officials on how to use the app in the run-up to the caucus, and local party members experienced difficulties downloading the app, obtaining a PIN to log in, and even opening the app after having obtained a PIN.
County officials were told to call in the results if the app didn’t work.
“When our chairs are calling, it’s a wait time of an hour and a half or two hours. In some cases they have dropped the call,” Bagniewski said.
As of Tuesday morning the final results of the caucus were still unknown.
“It’s a total meltdown,” senior Joe Biden adviser Anita Dunn said of the caucus.