NPR

After Iowa Debacle, Tech Experts Who Aid Progressives Call For A Strategic Shake-Up

The failure of this year's Iowa caucuses was years in the making, some technology specialists argue, in part because of the haphazard way political users buy software.
After the messy reporting of the Iowa caucus results, some who build tech for progressive causes say the approach to software development in this space needs rethinking.

Democrats could avoid another tech meltdown like the one that afflicted the Iowa caucuses with a better strategy for building the tools they need, progressive technology specialists say.

The origins of the Iowa debacle are in a boom-and-bust cycle that places technology in competition with other priorities as time-crunched campaigns grapple with how best to spend as they hurtle toward an election.

"The easy way to spend money, that's reliable, is on advertising," says Evan Henshaw-Plath, a technologist who has

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