Top Republicans of Homeland Security and House Administration Seek Answers of Dem’s App Fail in Iowa Caucus Reporting

WASHINGTON – Committee on Homeland Security Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today sent a letter to Shadow Inc. CEO Gerald Niemira, who created the app the Iowa Democratic Party used to report the results of the Iowa Caucus. Unfortunately, the app was not tested by the Department of Homeland Security before it’s use, and the Iowa Democrats were unable to produce the results of the votes accurately or in a timely manner, causing Americans to lose confidence in the integrity of the election system.

In the letter, Davis and Rogers write: 

“As Ranking Members of the House Committees on Homeland Security and House Administration, which have oversight jurisdiction over election security matters in the U.S. House of Representatives, we write to express our grave concern over the manner in which your company serviced the Iowa Democratic Caucus this past week.”

“In order for democracy to work, Americans must believe the results of their elections, and caucuses, are rock-solid and secure beyond a shadow of a doubt. Unfortunately, by choosing not to test your app for any technical glitches prior to its roll-out, your company has caused significant doubt over the Caucus results and, consequently, has undermined electoral confidence.”

“It is not apparent that the app was security tested or vetted for statewide use prior to Monday’s Caucuses. It is very worrisome that you moved forward with the app despite warnings that it could be problematic without sharing testing that was done to prove otherwise. While it may not have been possible to do comprehensive testing, given that the app was still being tweaked as late as two days prior to the caucus, testing of earlier versions of the app would have been advisable.”

“We also believe that Mr. Davis’s bill, H.R. 5707 – Protect America’s Voters Act – could help to prevent situations like this from happening in the future. As this bill moves through the legislative process, and as the EAC continues to address this issue, we hope that you take advantage of this type of expertise if you assist in future caucuses or elections. Americans are counting on vendors such as yourselves to take advantage of every available resource to assist in the integrity of our elections, and not to go at it alone as you tried to do this past week.”

You can read the full letter to Shadow, Inc. by clicking here. 

Background: 
On Monday, February 3, 2020, The Iowa Democratic Party used a new app meant to speed up the reporting of their Iowa Caucus results. The Iowa Democratic Party commissioned Shadow Inc., a for-profit technology company, to build the app in less than two months to help report results from around the state. The app, however, had a “coding error,” which caused significant result delays from the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential contest.

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