The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Democrats rushed to Nevada to offer caucus tech support. Some say they’ve been left in the dark. 

February 22, 2020 at 9:44 a.m. EST
A voter casts a ballot on Tuesday, the final day of early voting for the Nevada Democratic presidential caucus. (Mario Tama/AFP/Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS — The appeal to tech-savvy Democrats went out the week after technology crashed the Iowa caucuses — and days before the presidential nominating contest was set to touch down in Nevada.

The pitch was simple: “Your democracy needs you!”

That was the opening line of the email from Raffi Krikorian, the former chief technology officer at the Democratic National Committee. He sent the missive, obtained by The Washington Post, on Feb. 12, as Democrats in Iowa were still coming to grips with their bungled caucuses, thrown into disarray by a glitch in the software used to transmit results.