Democrats say iPad tool for the Nevada Caucuses is ‘not an app’ as panic grows about a repeat of the Iowa disaster

Two weeks before the 2020 Nevada caucuses, there is widespread fear that the Nevada Democratic Party could be plagued by the same factors that resulted in the bungled Iowa Caucuses.

"The week of chaos that followed the Iowa caucuses has prompted growing concern about problems in the next state to use that presidential nominating process, Nevada," Washington Postreported Saturday evening.

"Voters and campaigns have become increasingly mistrustful of the caucus format since the Iowa vote and are worried that further trouble could throw the Democrats’ 2020 primary process into complete disarray. In Nevada, those fears have only deepened since the state’s Democratic Party was forced to make abrupt changes to its caucus process because it had planned to use an iPad app developed by the same company that developed the mobile application used in Iowa," The Post explained.

The caucuses will officially take place on February 22nd, but there is a liberal early voting window that could make counting the results even more difficult than in Iowa.

"The plan was for that data to be transmitted to voters’ home precincts for the Feb. 22 in-person caucuses. The local caucus leaders, using a second reporting app, were to have incorporated the early voters’ choices into the first alignment and reallocate them if their first choices were not viable. The second app, used by the caucus leader, would have then transmitted the final results to the state party," The Post reported.

The Nevada Democratic Party is scrapping the use of both apps, which were created by "Shadow" -- which also built the app that failed in Iowa.

On Saturday, The Nevada Independent reported on the latest plan.

"Nevada Democrats are planning to use a new caucus tool that will be preloaded onto iPads and distributed to precinct chairs to help facilitate the Caucus Day process, according to multiple volunteers and a video recording of a volunteer training session on Saturday," The Nevada Independent reported. "In the video, a party staffer tells volunteers that the new mechanism 'is not an app' but should be thought of as 'a tool.'”

Veteran Nevada political reporter Jon Ralson offered his "thoughts and prayers" for the plan.