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Bill Brauch’s Apple ID eventually did him in.
Brauch, the caucus chair for precinct 59, a 511-person site in Des Moines, downloaded the Iowa Democratic Party’s app last week, tested it and believed it was working fine.
But on the night of the caucus, about 30 minutes before counting began, Brauch tested it again and a “glitch” made it so that only the left side of his iPad keyboard popped up, meaning he could only type numbers and letters on the left. That, obviously, made it impossible to use.
Brauch called the Democratic Party hotline and was told to change the settings and “unload the app and then reload it.”
“That required me to access my Apple password, which I did not have with me, so at that point that app wasn’t on my iPad,” he said with a slight laugh, meaning when people began caucusing at his site, they had no app to use.
Brauch then turned to the traditional way – over the phone – but was initially put on hold for 15 minutes before hanging up.
He then opted to use a backchannel he had to the Iowa Democratic Party’s boiler room. His caucus secretary knew someone in the room, so she called the person and they reported the data that way – via a backchannel, not on the official hotline.
“We were lucky that we had that inside person,” he said. “We had unique access because of that relationship.”
“The whole thing is disappointing to me,” he said. “The caucus itself ran smoothly, the new slightly revised rules and the presidential preference cards were not a problem, we found a way to do it in a way that was organized. And people had a good experience at the caucus.”
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