Jason Hidalgo, Ryan Foley and Christina Cassidy

Nevada is one of two early caucus states to use new mobile apps to report caucus results amid heightened worries about election hacking.

The Silver State will be joining Iowa in using mobile apps to gather results from thousands of caucus sites. The decision to use the apps was made to increase transparency and help run the caucuses more smoothly, said Shelby Wiltz, director of the Nevada State Democratic Party Caucus, on Monday.

"NV Dems has been committed to making our First in the West Caucus the most accessible, expansive and transparent caucus yet,” Wiltz said. “We developed a reporting application in order to streamline the caucus process and provide our volunteers with additional support to run their caucuses as efficiently as possible.”

Although the technology is intended to make counting easier, however, it also raises concerns about the potential for hacking or glitches. Party officials said that they worked closely with the Democratic National Committee and security experts while picking and vetting the app vendor that was chosen. They declined to name the vendor, however, citing security reasons.

Wiltz assured that the app has been thoroughly tested.

“We’ve gone through several rounds of testing and continue to work with a team of security experts with varying backgrounds to ensure the integrity of our process,” Wiltz said.

Democratic Party activists in Nevada and Iowa will use programs downloaded to their personal phones to report the results of caucus gatherings to the state headquarters. That data will then be used to announce the unofficial winners.

Precinct chairs will still use traditional tools for reporting results, including a paper reporting sheet and the paper math poster, alongside the app. Paper records will also be used to certify the results, with precinct chairs required to return the signed reporting sheet in order to verify results. The precinct chairs will also still be able to use the regular reporting hotline to report results over the phone.

As a backup measure, early voters will complete a paper preference sheet while caucus-goers will still complete the traditional paper preference cards.

Concerns of hacking

The party is moving ahead with the technology amid warnings that foreign hackers could target the 2020 presidential campaign to try to sow chaos and undermine American democracy. Party officials say they are cognizant of the threat and taking numerous security precautions. Any errors, they say, will be easily correctable because of backups.

Wiltz’s comments about security were echoed by Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price.

"We continue to work closely with security experts to test our systems and identify incidents, including disinformation monitoring, and we are confident in the security systems we have in place," Price said.

The technology aims to produce a more efficient and reliable way of calculating and releasing results to the public than the complicated math and thousands of phone calls that the caucus system has long relied upon.

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But the use of a new app by an unidentified developer, coupled with the high stakes of the contests, has concerned some observers. They worry that unofficial results could be inaccurate if hackers or other problems taint the data. That's a problem even if the paper backups eventually provide an accurate tally.

"Scary would be a darn good word," said Brandon Potter, chief technology officer of ProCircular, an Iowa company that has done vulnerability assessments for local elections officials. "If it's secure, awesome. But it opens up all kinds of questions."

Party officials in both states declined to identify the vendor that developed their apps, saying they did not want to create a potential target for hackers.

Microsoft developed an app that was used by both political parties in the 2016 Iowa caucuses and credited with helping obtain results from 95% of precincts within four hours. During that cycle, Microsoft's role was announced months beforehand, and the company discussed security measures.

Some critics say the party should again identify the developers, along with the certification and security testing they have gone through, to boost public confidence.

"It would be really nice to know who developed it, how competent they are and what oversight they were subjected to," said Douglas Jones, a University of Iowa computer science professor and election security expert. "The caucus night reporting, which is so important in determining which candidates drop out, which continue, who gets a boost from the caucus — all of that is definitely vulnerable to an attack on the app."

Crashing, hacking among possible problems

Jones said hacking could take several forms. Hackers could try to corrupt the app before it's downloaded, activate malware that might be lurking on phones or target the server that houses the app. Another concern: The app could crash amid heavy use as precincts report results.

He and others agreed that the official results of the Feb. 3 Iowa and Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses will eventually be accurate. Each precinct keeps paper copies of the results and numerous participants at each site will know the precise outcome.

Because of hacking concerns, the Democratic National Committee scrapped the Iowa party's plan to hold a virtual caucus in which those unable to attend in person could use smartphones to record their preferences. Party officials said the risks posed by the reporting apps were much lower than with electronic voting.

The state parties worked with the technical team at the DNC to vet developers and design security protocols around the use of the app.

The Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government conducted simulation and training exercises with Iowa officials that included scenarios in which there were problems with a mobile reporting app. The training emphasized the importance of using authentication, secure networks to transmit data and encryption to guard against attacks.

"I do think that we need to give the Iowa team a lot of credit for how seriously they looked at all these issues," said Eric Rosenbach, co-director of the Belfer Center.

DNC spokesman David Bergstein said national officials were coordinating with the Iowa party and the Department of Homeland Security "to run efficient and secure caucuses." He said he is confident that state Democrats are "taking the security of their caucuses extremely seriously from all perspectives."

Party officials said they would not be sending the app to precinct chairs for downloading until just before the caucus — to narrow the window for any interference. And while using the app is encouraged, precinct chairs still have the option of phoning in results.

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Democrat Ruth Thompson, who will chair a Des Moines precinct, said she was not concerned about security risks related to the app.

"The Russians don't care what's on my phone," she said. "I know we've got the app, but we have a paper backup. If there is a hack or something, there is the opportunity to correct it."

Hacking fears aren't new. In 2012, a video purporting to be from the hacking collective Anonymous called on supporters to "peacefully shut down" the Republican caucuses. In response, party leaders increased their security measures for the website where the results were posted.

Ultimately, it was old-fashioned data errors that tainted the results that year: The party chairman on caucus night declared Mitt Romney the winner by eight votes over Rick Santorum. Two weeks later, Santorum was declared the winner by 34 votes when results were certified.

NV Dems Rural Caucus Training Tour

Nevada Democrats will hold a caucus training tour across the state from Jan. 21 to 26.

The events are designed to educate caucus-goers and volunteers about the caucus process in the Silver State’s rural counties.

Here is the schedule:

Tuesday, January 21

Pahrump

2531 W Irene St, Pahrump, NV 89060

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174302/

Tonopah

Tonopah Library District

167 Central St, Tonopah, NV 89049

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174375/

Wednesday, January 22

Dayton

Dayton Valley Branch Library

321 Dayton Valley Rd, Dayton, NV 89403

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174793/

Thursday, January 23

Minden

Douglas County Democrats HQ

1758 U.S. Hwy 395 N Suite K, Minden, NV 89423

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174803/

Carson City

Carson City Democrats HQ

502 E John St, Carson City, NV 89706

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174809/

Friday, January 24

Virginia City

Virginia City Conference Center

10 E St, Virginia City, NV 89440

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174811/

Fallon

Fallon Convention Center

100 Campus Way

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174813/

Saturday, January 25

Elko

Elko Library

720 Court St, Elko, NV 89801

RSVP here: https://www.mobilize.us/nvdems/event/174422/

Sunday, January 26th

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