On Twitter, Shadow Inc. said that it was an independent company that the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) contracted for the purpose of creating an app to "ensure accuracy in a complex reporting process.""We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night’s Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers," Shadow Inc. tweeted.As the Iowa Democratic Party has confirmed, the underlying data and collection process via Shadow’s mobile caucus app was sound and accurate, but our process to transmit that caucus results data generated via the app to the IDP was not.
— Shadow, Inc. (@ShadowIncHQ) February 4, 2020
Shadow Inc. said that the issue "did not affect the underlying caucus results data" and that it already corrected the underlying issue. The company also pledged to "apply the lessons learned in the future."Earlier on Tuesday, IDP wrote in a statement that it found, "inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results," according to American media outlets. The app was meant to ease the transmission of voter data from Iowa's approximately 1,700 caucus sites."This is simply a reporting issue, the app did not go down and this is not a hack or an intrusion. The underlying data and paper trail is sound and will simply take time to further report the results," Business Insider quoted the party's statement as saying.ACRONYM describes itself as "a values-driven organization" and is affiliated with PACRONYM, which is currently running the "Four is Enough" digital campaign against US President Donald Trump."In January 2019 we launched Shadow, a tech company focused on enabling organizers to run smarter campaigns," ACRONYM wrote on its website.The organization attempted to distance itself from Shadow Inc. in a statement, "ACRONYM is an investor in several for-profit companies across the progressive media and technology sectors. One of those independent, for-profit companies is Shadow, Inc, which also has other private investors."We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night’s Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers.
— Shadow, Inc. (@ShadowIncHQ) February 4, 2020
In the same statement, tweeted by Teddy Schleifer, a writer for Recode tech news website, ACRONYM wrote, "We are reading confirmed reports of Shadow's work with the Iowa Democratic Party on Twitter, and we, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party with respect to what happened."IDP paid Shadow Inc. just over $63,000 in two separate payments, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which cited state records.The delay prompted two leading candidates in the Iowa race, US Senator Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, to release their own tallies.It remains unclear when official results wil be released.Even if one candidate eventually wins by a commanding margin in Iowa, Democrats may still lack clear answers as the race moves on to the other three early voting states of New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina later in February.Whoever remains in the race by Super Tuesday on March 3, when 15 states and territories vote, will also confront billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is skipping the early states in favor of focusing on states rich in delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July.Democrats also experienced technical difficulties in 2018, a security firm detected a phishing test built by DigiDems, setting off a false alarm, according to WSJ.Just in — a statement from ACRONYM."We, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party." pic.twitter.com/cBy2ZNwsPz
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) February 4, 2020