Iowa parties work together to boost caucus technology

DES MOINES - A new program developed for Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses aims to improve the accuracy and timeliness of reporting results of the presidential nominating event.

Iowa's Democratic and Republican party leaders held a joint news conference Friday to announce their plans to use the program on caucus night in February.

'We must ensure the precincts in all parts of the state are able to quickly and accurately provide caucus results,” Republican Party of Iowa chairman Jeff Kaufmann said. 'It's important that we have a caucus reporting system that is using the very latest and the very best technology to provide accurate and quick results.”

Developed by a firm called interknowlogy in partnership with Microsoft, the first-of-its kind program will enable caucus precinct leaders to deliver results to the state parties electronically. Those results will be verified by the parties and promptly published online.

People will be able to see results as they are published and will be able to view them by precinct and county.

'Because of our partnership with Microsoft, Iowans and the rest of America will get exactly what we all expect: timely, accurate results backed up by one of the top software companies in the world,” Democratic Party of Iowa chairwoman Andy McGuire said.

The 2012 Republican caucuses were decided by a historically small margin and marred by erroneously reported results. The party reported that eventual presidential nominee Mitt Romney won, but a recount later showed former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum won.

Kaufmann insisted the technological changes announced Thursday were not driven by 2012.

'I don't think any of this is being driven by past mistakes. I think this is working forward and continuing to do everything possible to make sure the rest of the country realizes that we deserve to be first in the nation,” he said.

Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft's corporate vice president of technology and civic engagement, and the party leaders said precinct officials will be prepped on using the program over the coming months. The program is an application that users can download onto personal laptops, tablets and smartphones, and it will be tailored to each party's caucus system.

Lewin said he does not anticipate any technical troubles on caucus night since the combined activity generated by reporting from Iowa's roughly 1,700 precincts will pale in comparison with the traffic resulting from other programs managed by Microsoft.

'For generations, people have looked to Iowa, and we're hoping that this will continue, and we're very glad to be part of this new process,” he said.

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