Cybersecurity

Iowa Caucus Meltdown Tied to Democrats’ Little-Tested App

  • Homeland Security chief says application was likely overloaded
  • Iowa has paper ballot backups to assist in counting results

Attendees for Bernie Sanders hold up their Presidential Preference Cards during the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus at the Southridge Mall in Des Moines on Feb. 3.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

The breakdown in reporting results from Iowa’s Democratic caucuses appears tied to failures in a mobile application that wasn’t ready for the load of a statewide election and which the head of the Homeland Security Department said wasn’t subjected to a cybersecurity test by his agency.

“This is more of a stress or load issue as well as a reporting issue that we’re seeing in Iowa,” acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a Fox News interview Tuesday.