The CEO of the failed Iowa caucus voting app complained that campaign tech was a 's--t show' a year ago

Associated Press

Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg's shadow is cast on the Iowas state flag as he speaks during a campaign event at Northwest Junior High, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, in Coralville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

• Gerard Niemira, now CEO of Shadow Inc., said in an interview last year that the existing technology used by Democrats in elections was a "s--t show" and a "tangled morass," according to a report from Protocol.
• Shadow's app was used by the Iowa Democratic Party for its caucuses this week, and led to massive delays.
• Shadow and the Iowa Democratic Party said that the delays were caused by coding issues in the app.
• At the time of his comments last year, Niemira worked for Acronym, a nonprofit that initially said it "launched" Shadow but says now that it merely "invested in" the tech company.
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The CEO of Shadow Inc., which created the app that led to massive delays in results from the Iowa caucuses this week, said last year that technology used by Democrats in elections was a "s--t show" and a "tangled morass," according to a newly published report from Protocol.

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Shadow CEO Gerardo Niemira said in a March 2019 interview with Protocol's Issie Lapowsky that existing elections technology used by Democrats, like the Vertica data system, were "a s--t show from the moment I started there," speaking about his time on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign when he encountered the technology.

"These systems, they're not designed super intentionally from day one, which frankly, nothing in the political tech ecosystem has been," he said.

The comments would come nearly a year before the app created by Niemira's company botched the Iowa Democratic caucuses, leading to massive delays amid incomplete reporting of results from precincts around Iowa.

Shadow said in a series of tweets on Tuesday that "we sincerely regret the delay" and that "we will apply the lessons learned in the future."

The app also raised potential cyber security concerns, but the Iowa Democratic Party said the app was not hacked. Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said on Tuesday that "inconsistencies" in results were caused by a "coding issue" in the app.

Niemira made the comments last year while he was working for Acronym, a nonprofit that previously said it "launched Shadow," but now claims it merely "invested in Shadow."

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez apologized for the app-related delay in a statement Wednesday and said that the Shadow-created app would not be used in the upcoming Nevada caucus or "anywhere else during the primary election process."

Read more of Niemira's 2019 interview over on the newly launched publication Protocol.