Democrat App Builders: LEARN TO CODE!
THEN AND NOW-——THE IOWA CAUCUS DEBACLE UP-CLOSE:
LAST FALL, Iowa’s Republican and Democratic Parties and their app and web development vendors partnered with (cough) Harvard’s “Defending Digital Democracy Project” to develop strategies and systems to protect results and deal with misinformation.
The Harvard group included party “campaign experts” Robby Mook and Matt Rhodes, and experts in (A) cybersecurity, (B) national security, (C) technology and (D) election administration.
Fortuitously, the group simulated different ways “things could go wrong” on caucus night. (cue maniacal laugh machine here).
Mook is 2016 campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, and Rhodes is Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign manager.
Out of sheer public-spiritededness, these two helped develop a video to alert campaigns to warning signs of hacking and misinformation.
THAT WAS THEN-— THIS IS NOW-—WHAT THE IOWA DEMOCRAT PARTY IS SAYING IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE DEBACLE
“The app the Iowa Democratic Party commissioned to tabulate and report results from the caucuses on Monday was not properly tested, people briefed on the app by the state party told newspapers. It was quickly put together in just the past two months , said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.”
Plus the state party decided to use the app only after another proposal for reporting votes — which entailed caucus participants phoning in their votes — was abandoned, on the advice of DNC officials, according to David Jefferson, a board member of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election integrity organization.