Tipsheet

Firm That Built Iowa Caucus App Is Full of Former Clinton Campaign Staffers

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  February 04, 2020 8:50 AM

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.”

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. 

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)

Twitter users pointed out other possible red flags.