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Caucuses Will Rely on Apps Next Year

Photo by John Pemble
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Andy McGuire, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Technology and Civic Engagement Dan'l Lewin and Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann announce new technology for the 2016 Iowa Caucuses.

Tallying results from the Iowa presidential caucuses will rely on mobile technology for the first time in 2016. The Democratic and Republican parties and Microsoft jointly announced that apps are being developed for each party that will tabulate precinct results, verify them, and quickly make them publicly available.

“The caucus results will be delivered via this new mobile-enabled, cloud-based platform that will help facilitate these accurate and timely results,” says Dan’l Lewin, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Technology and Civic Engagement.

Lewin says the company is confident it can manage all the data on caucus night and quickly identify and correct any errors. Leaders of both parties emphasized their shared support for the new technology…and for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus status.

“For generations people have looked to Iowa and we’re hoping that this will continue,” Lewin says, “and we’re very glad to be part of this new milestone.”

Separate apps are being developed and tested for the Republicans and Democrats. Lewin says he is confident the company has enough time to test and retest the technology so it’s ready to run smoothly on caucus night.

More: a promotional video describing the new technology is here.

Amy Mayer is a reporter based in Ames