Microsoft in Iowa hot seat tonight for 2016 United States presidential caucuses

So Microsoft’s app definitely sounds better than typing digits into a keypad on a telephone, but both parties will still have to rely on their precinct captains to correctly report the results from their blobs and hand-written votes. “This announcement represents the first-of-its-kind major technology component to caucus reporting”.

Last week the Republican Party of Iowa reported successful tests in all 1,681 precincts, including at least two per county and a total of more than 300 overall “to prepare caucus night reporters to quickly, accurately, and securely report results using the new Microsoft app on February 1”.

The caucus tallying apps may deliver more accurate results than ever, and also help the public feel more confident in the results, since the news media won’t be the only intermediary.

Smith said later that she could call a phone number to report the results to the Democratic Party of Iowa.

The contests in both parties are expected to go down to the wire.

InterKnowlogy, a 30-person Microsoft application development partner in Carlsbad, Calif., is playing a big role in upgrading the voting technology infrastructure for the Iowa Caucus, which starts Monday evening and marks the official beginning of the 2016 presidential election.

Putting aside my own misgivings on the technical front for a moment, others have been more than a little suspicious for different reasons.

Pete D’Alessandro, the Iowa campaign leader for Bernie Sanders, last week questioned the neutrality of Microsoft’s involvement, as many Microsoft employees have donated to Hilary Clinton’s campaign over the years. However, the campaign declined to expand on its concerns after multiple requests for clarification.

To counter any issues, according to the report, Clinton and Sanders’ headquarters have both also prepared backup reporting systems to check against Microsoft’s systems.

“You’d have to ask yourself why they’d want to give something like that away for free”, he said to MSNBC about the tech giant volunteering the reporting platform.

Personally, I’m not too anxious about the robust abilities of the new app in performing this critical task. The Microsoft app allows people entering results to double check and correct their entries – something the phone system didn’t do – and has a means to flag anomalies.