Let me also add a wisecrack I heard years ago. With the aid of a computer in a matter of seconds you can make a mistake that would have taken years to make in the past.
Let me also add a wisecrack I heard years ago. With the aid of a computer in a matter of seconds you can make a mistake that would have taken years to make in the past.
It’s a lesson in you get what you pay for.
If the app was a custom built from the ground up app – the 60k paid for it is too little. That wouldn’t cover the salary of a single developer for a year.
On the other hand, someone probably could have done 90% of the functionality for free in 12 hours by creating an online spreadsheet that is restricted to approved users (on Google or Microsoft).
Iowa has 1,681 precincts. Right now I know of a mobile app that is presently being rolled out to 1,400 users in both iOS and Android versions that is undoubtedly significantly more sophisticated than the app being used in Iowa that was developed with about two man months of work. But you’ve got to really know what you’re doing to achieve that level of efficiency. I wouldn’t be surprised if the issues they encountered were due to insufficient load testing.
I bet at that level of efficiency means those developers don’t come cheap.
From the way officials in charge of the caucus are describing; it is not a load testing bug, but a logic bug of some sort. Or a bug in the UI which confuses people trying to input data.
Ok. I’m an IT idiot. So can’t even imagine commenting on the app.
Heard the app was developed by HRC related people. Wild conspiracy theory?
I’ve read a lot of stuff about this. In some cases it was claimed that things just weren’t adding up. I’ve also read that the problem was with the app failing to recognize the PINs issued to individuals in the precincts. That sounds suspiciously to me as though the server were refusing connections which could be a load problem.
The problem with that is that 1,600 concurrent users is not an enormous load but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they did not test for it.
Drew- Doesn’t look like a conspiracy theory that former Clinton staffers made the app.
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-02-04/clinton-campaign-vets-behind-2020-iowa-caucus-app-snafu
That article from the LA times mentions a significant number of intended users had not downloaded or used the app prior to the caucus.
Is it normal practice for election officials to try technology to run elections for the first time at the election itself?
Caucuses are very, very different from elections. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this were the very first time that technology had been used in an Iowa caucus.
In Chicago the Board of Election Commissioners would have tested everything and all election judges would have gone through mandatory training. But that’s Illinois not Iowa.
mandatory training
NPR yesterday am interviewed one precinct official who said their captain had taken part in voluntary training and subsequently their use of the app went smoothly. Said they were very surprised to hear that others were having so much trouble, and her theory was that many or most of the captains had skipped the training.
Then there were other reports that many of the captains didn’t even bother to download the app or decided not to because of the irregularities (security warnings.) They assumes they could just use their former method of calling in results but of course the party didn’t plan for that and weren’t able to handle the huge number of calls.