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Comment by coredog64 | Hacker News Reader

There always was a paper trail. The purpose of the app is/was to send a set of numbers from the precinct to central.

I'd like to introduce you to my friend, the state of Georgia, for the past 20 years. Only this year, by court order, are they reintroducing a paper trail. While you're correct that Iowa has a paper trail for their caucus, it's not a concept that is ubiquitous, and has severely damaged the integrity of elections in the US, and especially in the state of Georgia.

I'm kind of amazed at how it failed. 1,681 precincts in Iowa - that data could fit on a floppy disk.

IKR? And for all options they may end up with, they chose an APP. WHY? Does laptop not exist anymore? Does phones lack the ability to open webpages anymore?

Hasn't logging in been one of the things we perfected over 30 years?

Yes, if you want to have a small tool for volunteers without logistics of shipping machines, laptops don't exist anymore. Developing desktop software for such purpose is way more complex, especially when considering updates etc. Which Windows version are you targeting? And Mac? What libraries you need?

For app development, even if for two platforms (Android and iOS) it is a lot simpler these days, than desktop.

Even just a private Google form has like 95% of the functionality needed here, and can be accessed via mobile browser requiring no download.

The alternative is web, not desktop.

The GP asked "Don't laptops exist anymore" to that I answered. And no - a webapp isn't an alternative for those crappy laptops, filled with viruses, outdated browsers, and/or weird privacy plugins the (grand-)son installed are not an alternative. (We could argue about requirements of integrity here ... an app can offer a little bit more than a webapp on an arbitrary windows PC ... But integrity can be guaranteed by having the second channel (other people watching and then comparing published results) as there is no secrecy involved (for one we talk about summaries, for second caucuses are public anyways))

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