The New York Times published “everything that went wrong at the Iowa Caucases,” and it’s a long list about the app. The technology was untested and unfamiliar to volunteers, and connection problems prevented accurate data submission and reporting.

An opinion writer blamed “techno-utopianism and laziness” for the trouble: “The two fuel each other: The overarching belief that software will fix everything leads to slapdash engineering, procurement and deployment.”

Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party Chair, apologized for the “multiple reporting challenges.” He explains the decision to delay reporting to ensure “accuracy and integrity.”

The CEO of Shadow, the app company, also apologized:

“We sincerely regret the delay in the reporting of the results of last night's Iowa caucuses and the uncertainty it has caused to the candidates, their campaigns, and Democratic caucus-goers. As the Iowa Democratic Party has confirmed, the underlying data and collection process via Shadow's mobile caucus app was sound and accurate, but our process to transmit that caucus results data generated via the app to the IDP was not. Importantly, this issue did not affect the underlying caucus results data. We worked as quickly as possible overnight to resolve this issue, and the IDP has worked diligently to verify results. Shadow is an independent, for-profit technology company that contracted with the Iowa Democratic Party to build a caucus reporting mobile app, which was optional for local officials to use. The goal of the app was to ensure accuracy in a complex reporting process. We will apply the lessons learned in the future, and have already corrected the underlying technology issue. We take these issues very seriously, and are committed to improving and evolving to support the Democratic Party's goal of modernizing its election processes."

Discussion:

• Analyze each of these apologies: the audiences, communication objectives, writing style, organization, delivery choice, etc. Each message has distinct purposes.

• What works well in these statements, and what could be improved?