This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Over the last two weekends, Colorado Democrats held caucus meetings to help decide who will be on the primary ballot in June, but the meetings were beset with technical difficulties that have led to confusion and consternation from some who attended and concerns about whether delegates lost their voice in the process.
In previous years, the process has run on paper ballots and in-person voting. This year was the first time the Party introduced voting by app.
Delegates described using Airtable, a business workflow app that is not designed to run elections, to register their votes. The software struggled to handle the high volume of users throughout the process, and finally crashed toward the end of the day on March 14.
“People are getting pretty tired and upset at that point in time,” said State House District 6 candidate Iris Halpern, who is hoping to serve as a delegate in several statewide races at the party convention in Pueblo later this month. “I think most people tried to be patient and stick with it. But I'm pretty sure we probably did lose some folks throughout the day.”
Democratic state Rep. Steven Woodrow of Denver said it wasn’t exactly clear what went wrong with the app.
“There were certainly tech issues,” Woodrow said. “The state party has been trying a new program, which has a lot of benefits to it in terms of its organizational value and ease of use. At the same time, it looks like there might've been capacity issues, especially impacting larger counties like Denver.”
Like any new system, he said, there are going to be kinks to work out.
One Democrat who attended the caucus in Denver in the hopes of being selected as a delegate for Attorney General candidate Jena Griswold and granted anonymity to speak freely, said she went in person and stayed for almost eight hours in the hopes the technology would get sorted out.
“They announced it was going to be a mobile or a remote vote, and then I left. It turned out they did a paper vote,” the delegate hopeful said. “So several of us left, so I don’t know in the end what happened.”
At other assembly sites, frustrated delegates were left to their own devices to figure out how to record their votes.
“They were trying to fix the actual technology problem, but they just were unable to do it, which is when we kind of had to do things on the fly,” Halpern said. “They didn't have an actual backup process. We were having to make suggestions, debate, and brainstorm how we were even going to vote.”
Deep Singh Badhesha, a volunteer for Melat Kiros’s campaign, said that the software was especially problematic in assigning delegates to particular geographic areas. If candidates failed to do so, they might not get their full contingent of delegates at the multi-county assemblies in the coming month. Kiros’s campaign instead used paper lists. Kiros is challenging U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette.
State party says data 'more accurate' but frustration understandable.
The caucus and assembly process is how Democratic candidates earn a spot on the primary ballot. Party members meet at precinct-level caucuses to choose assembly delegates, who ultimately determine primary candidates at the state and congressional district assemblies later this month. Even in the best of times, it’s a complex, sometimes chaotic system.
Colorado Democratic Party chair Shad Murib was not immediately available for an interview but said in a statement that the party strives to provide a quality experience for delegates.
“Due to high turnout, the digital system was stressed and slowed, which led to delays,” he said. “The system didn’t crash and the data remained intact, though we know the delays were frustrating for people who participated.”
He added the experience will be “a lesson learned” for 2028 and the party looks forward to moving ahead “with the rest of this democratic process.”
But some Democrats say it's a lesson the party had plenty of time to absorb — and act on — before the system meltdown on Saturday. The new software, glitches and all, was rolled out a week prior, during an earlier round of Democratic assemblies.
In Garfield County, which held its assembly on March 7, the technology was slow. Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco from Glenwood Springs said people waited so long on a Zoom call that they lost a quorum and had to reschedule the vote. But despite the logistical challenges, she said she appreciates everyone who participated and stands by the process.
“It’s a commitment to our democracy and to make our voices heard, it’s an inclusive grassroots way to elect candidates for the ballot, around 40 different counties had their caucus on the same day and that put a strain on the online system, I was proud to see patience and grace as we followed the rules to get our candidates on the ballot,” said Velasco in a text message.
Halpern said it’s a little disappointing that the Democratic party didn’t plan for a smoother process before some of the largest counties were gathering, putting further strain on the system.
“The first time they rolled it out, it had a lot of problems, but they somehow continued to use it,” Halpern said.
Campaigns are keeping an eye on what happens next.
“We had some folks who were frustrated, and it’s unclear if they were able to cast their ballot,” said Fiona Boomer, campaign manager for Democrat Trisha Calvarese, who was trying to get on the primary ballot for the 4th Congressional District.
She said that delegate voters in Arapahoe County were sent home and had to vote via email.
But for all the consternation, it’s not clear that any candidates’ campaigns were upended by the software woes.
Calvarese fell short of the 30 percent needed to make the ballot, but her campaign is not attributing her loss to the technological glitches.
At the national level, Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette, the dean of Colorado’s congressional delegation, underperformed at the caucus.
“We’re tracking all of the irregularities and major tech issues that happened at the Denver assembly,” said Jennie Peek-Dunstone, a spokesperson for the DeGette campaign. “But at the same time, Diana received more than the required threshold, and we’re confident she’s going to be on the primary ballot in June.”
Nor is it certain how many assembly sites and delegates were affected by the glitches. For instance, Daniel Fitzstephens, an experienced delegate from House District 5, said he wasn’t fazed at all by this year’s process.
“It's always a bit of a confusing mess,” Fitzstephens said. “This was no more confusing a mess than any other times I've participated.”
