The February 2019 Iowa caucus was a disaster filled with errors, confusion, and mismanagement. The voting technology was insufficient and reported bugs in the new software. The voting was conducted through a smartphone app with questionable security measures. Officials claim there was no hacking or malfunction that occurred with the app, but that it was an issue of communicating with party officials. Iowa Democratic Party leaders refused to reveal the name of the app developer, citing safety concerns. However, it is now known the for-profit company is Shadow Inc., which lauds itself as “affordable” and “easy-to-use.”
In the 2020 election, 1,001,573 absentee ballots were cast, compared to the 698,557 ballots cast in person on election day. As of 11/3/2020, Iowa recorded 148,988 inactive voters. Overall, Iowa cast 1,700,130 ballots, putting total state turnout at about 75%. The state favored incumbent Donald J. Trump, who won its 6 electoral votes with 53.1% of the popular vote. Iowa has voted for both Democrat and Republican presidential candidates, but is now considered to be a safe state for Republicans.
Iowa has a bicameral legislature with 50 senators and 100 representatives. Republicans have held the majority in both chambers since 2017. Governor Kim Reynolds’ (R) current term ends in 2023. She will be eligible to run for re-election.