Troy Price, the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, told campaigns in a letter obtained by CNN that a "coding issue" with the app was preventing it from transmitting accurate data.
"While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data," Price wrote. "This issue was identified and fixed." Price added that paper backups have successfully validated the data that made it into the app.
The app was built by Shadow Inc., a person familiar with the app told CNN. Shadow's involvement was first reported by HuffPost. On its website, Shadow describes itself as a technology company serving progressive campaigns, and says that its employees previously worked for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's campaigns, as well as the AFL-CIO and the Democratic National Committee. Shadow didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.
A CNN review of IDP's expenditures showed that it had made payments to Shadow, the company that built the app, in 2019, totaling more than $60,000.
Shadow is connected to another group, ACRONYM. Early Tuesday morning, ACRONYM spokesman Kyle Tharp tweeted a statement distancing the group from Shadow.
"ACRONYM is a nonprofit and not a technology company," said Tharp. "As such, we have not provided any technology to the Iowa Democratic Party, Presidential campaigns, or the Democratic National Committee."
Tharp acknowledged ACRONYM's role as one of a number of investors in Shadow. But he added that "we, like everyone else, are eagerly awaiting more information from the Iowa Democratic Party with respect to what happened."
Last January, however, ACRONYM founder Tara McGowan tweeted proudly that ACRONYM was "launching" Shadow.
The IDP pushed heavily to make this year's caucus a high-tech affair. In addition to the app, it initially proposed a new "virtual caucus" system that would see caucusgoers voting by smartphone -- an idea that national party officials quickly shot down over security concerns.
A Democratic official raised doubts on Tuesday about Shadow's expertise in software development, following CNN's confirmation of the company's role in developing the problematic Iowa caucus app.
Shadow's background is primarily in voter-contact technologies such as text messaging, the official said, not app development.
"Our impression was they don't do software development, to be honest," the official said. "It was surprising to see them in all of this, because it seemed like their main work was more like organizing and get out out the vote through technology services. Our impression from some conversations with them was that that was not their area of expertise."
A review of the company's staff on LinkedIn appears to bolster the claim. Of 10 employees who self-identified as working for Shadow, only its chief technology officer, Krista Davis, listed any significant programming experience.
Davis spent eight years at Google as a senior software engineer, according to her profile, working on teams developing Google Hangouts and Google Docs. James Hickey, Shadow's chief operating officer, spent two years as a quality assurance engineer at Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company also has several junior developers and interns who completed their coding certifications only in the last couple of years.
The official predicted that the company's foray into software development could be set back by the Iowa episode as other states reevaluate the company's technology. Nevada Democrats were expected to use the same app in a few weeks.
"I can almost guarantee you, after all of this, I cannot imagine them going forward with Shadow during their caucuses," said the Democratic official.
On paper, Shadow's offices are located in a WeWork co-working space at the end of a hip, industrial-looking alley in Washington. A mural graces the wall at one end of the alley, which also boasts a trendy La Colombe coffee shop. The entire aesthetic befits the cool startup personality that Shadow seeks to convey on its website.
But Shadow is no longer at the temporary work space address listed in Iowa state records from just a couple of months ago.
When CNN visited Shadow's offices Tuesday morning, a receptionist at the WeWork space said the company had moved out of its space roughly a month ago.
It was not immediately clear where the company had relocated, but the receptionist said that Shadow had occupied the WeWork space for some time before vacating the co-working site.
The Texas Democratic Party acknowledged on Tuesday that it had also hired Shadow, but a spokesman for the state party, Abhi Rahman, said the business relationship was limited to Shadow's voter texting service.
"It's very important to note here that we did not use them for any web development or app services," Rahman told CNN.
Rahman said that Shadow was one of a number of different texting vendors that the state party has used for get-out-the-vote efforts in Texas.
According to Federal Election Commission records, the Texas Democratic Party paid Shadow a combined $250 last year in two separate payments — one in May and one in September.
