Tech firm Shadow, Inc., which created the technology for the Iowa caucuses that completely failed, is headed up by a number of former Hillary for America staffers.
On its website, the firm explains the team is composed of “campaign and technology veterans who have built and implemented technology at Hillary for America, Obama for America, Google, Kiva, Apple, the AFL-CIO, and the DNC.”
Shadow CEO, CTO, COO and Product Manager all worked for Hillary in 2016 https://t.co/JpBkPCztOM
— Mike Prysner (@MikePrysner) February 4, 2020
While the app was supposed to make the Iowa caucuses easier, many caucus site precinct chairs reported that it wasn’t working--an error that seems like it could have been prevented if Dem leadership opened the app up to prior scrutiny.
Homeland Security's @CISAgov offered to test the Iowa Caucus app. They declined. See @DHS_Wolf interview https://t.co/GoQeEMZbuJ
— Heather Swift, DHS spokesperson (@SpoxDHS) February 4, 2020
Cybersecurity experts also roundly criticized the Iowa Democratic Party’s decision to not identify the app maker publicly or allow it to be subject to open security and reliability testing.
The cybersecurity wing of the Department of Homeland Security recently offered to do some security testing on the app but the Iowa Democratic Party declined the outreach, according to people familiar with the matter. DHS declined to comment on the app, referring questions to the Iowa Democratic Party. After being sent multiple requests for comment, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Democratic Party said that she was checking about this and would circle back.
The state party has defended its plan, with officials saying in January that they were confident in their security systems and that if there were errors, the party would be able to correct them because there would also be paper records of the votes. (WSJ)
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Twitter users pointed out other possible red flags.
Buttigieg uses same vendor, Shadow Inc., that Iowa Dem Party paid to develop their app for caucus results.
— HARLAN Z. HILL (@Harlan) February 4, 2020
Owner of Shadow is married to Buttigieg’s digital director.
Interesting. pic.twitter.com/jCFYZrHYFX
CEO of Shadow Inc has his Twitter set to private pic.twitter.com/yN3KDsimTQ
— Quality Control Oligarch Poso ???? (@JackPosobiec) February 4, 2020
Owner of Shadow Inc https://t.co/YzABfp2LFH
— Quality Control Oligarch Poso ???? (@JackPosobiec) February 4, 2020
Shadow Inc launched on 17th Jan 2019. Mayor Pete announces run for President on 23rd Jan. CEO of company that owns Shadow tweets out her support. New CEO of Shadow worked for Hillary's campaign. Pete's campaign gives giant contributions to Shadow. This all reeks #IowaCaucuses ?? pic.twitter.com/CR6rKvLZaU
— Unreal Trailers #NotMeUs ?? (@GotBerniesBack) February 4, 2020
Hillary Clinton hyped up the $75 million initiative that funded the creation of Pacronym and Shadow Inc., claiming it would protect against "propaganda."
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 4, 2020
David Plouffe, who's been hammering Bernie on MSNBC all night, is on this group's board.https://t.co/UIGYAerrVU
Nevada Dem federal account paid Shadow $58k in August, Iowa Dems state account paid Shadow $63,183 in two payments over Nov & Dec, suggesting app wasn't developed until just months ago? Both caucus states. Shadow is a spin-off from PACRONYM, a new Dem dark money/superPAC hybrid.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 4, 2020
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