Nevada Democrats abandon caucus app after Iowa election fiasco

By Allison Matyus Published February 11, 2020

Nevada wants to avoid the tech mishaps that plagued the Iowa caucuses, announcing it would not use a controversial results-tracking app, opting instead for paper-based balloting for this weekend’s start of the state’s early voting process.

The Associated Press reports that Nevada Democratic Party Executive Director, Alana Mounce, said in a memo on Tuesday that the party is working to simplify the process and build in “additional redundancies” to minimize any tech errors.

Recommended Videos

The only technology that will be used is in the voter check-in process. Volunteers will use iPads to check in early voters who will then fill out their paper ballots, which will be turned in and scanned as usual.

“Each voter will be given a card with the voter registration ID number and a PIN, both of which the voter will enter when checking in online via a Google form,” the Associated Press reports.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nevada originally planned to use the same app created by developer Shadow that was used for the Iowa caucuses, but announced the day after the caucus that they would be going in a different direction.

“We will not be employing the same app or vendor used in the Iowa caucus,” said Nevada Democratic Party Chair, William McCurdy II. “We had already developed a series of backups and redundant reporting systems, and are currently evaluating the best path forward.”

Nevada’s caucus takes place on Saturday, February 22, but early voting takes place from February 15 to 18.

Digital Trends reached out to the Nevada Democratic Party to find out if any technology will be used on the actual voting day of February 22, as well as what precautions they are taking to make sure it goes smoothly. We will update this story when we hear back.

Technology was to blame for the fiasco that was the Democratic Iowa caucus last week, which delayed results by more than 15 hours.

Caucus workers reported that they couldn’t get the app to work and that some workers even initially forgot to download the app ahead of time. Iowa Democratic Party chair Troy Price later said that the app’s issue had to do with coding. The results of the Iowa caucuses are still in dispute.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…

Mobile

Google just gave vision to AI, but it’s still not available for everyone

Gemini Live App on the Galaxy S25 Ultra broadcast to a TV showing the Gemini app with the camera feature open

Google has just officially announced the roll out of a powerful Gemini AI feature that means the intelligence can now see.

This started in March as Google began to show off Gemini Live, but it's now become more widely available.

Mobile

This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals

UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Cars

Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues

Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”