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Who Is Shadow Inc., The Company Behind The Iowa Caucus Voting App?
O’Ryan Johnson
The startup behind the failed Iowa caucus app is packed with operatives from past Democratic presidential campaigns, and is tied to ACRONYM, ‘a nonprofit organization committed to building power and digital infrastructure for the progressive movement.’
Caucus Catastrophe
Shadow Inc. Tuesday found itself decidedly in the spotlight after it was identified as the company behind an app blamed for a delay in the reporting of results from the Iowa Caucuses Monday night.
CEO Gerard Niemira in a statement on the company's website admitted Shadow Inc.'s role in the debacle, saying, "We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night’s Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers. As the Iowa Democratic Party has confirmed, the underlying data and collection process via Shadow’s mobile caucus app was sound and accurate, but our process to transmit that caucus results data generated via the app to the [Iowa Democratic Party] was not."
According to campaign finance records, the Iowa Democratic Party paid Shadow Inc. about $60,000 two months ago.
The Shadow app was also set to be used in the Nevada Caucuses later this month, but the Nevada Democratic Party Tuesday said it no longer plans to use the technology. Campaign finance records show Nevada paid $58,000 to Shadow Inc. last year.
There are a lot of questions swirling about the year-old, Washington, D.C.-based Shadow Inc. Here's what we know so far about the company and the people behind it.
