Secretary of State Paul Pate.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate joined officials from the Iowa National Guard, Homeland Security, the Iowa Department of Public Safety and the chief technology officer for the State of Iowa to discuss election security this morning. It’s an issue Pate has been discussing as he travels the state.
“Russians, don’t even try,” Pate said in Sioux Center last week, “but that doesn’t mean they don’t try every day. There’s a lot of bad actors out there and we’ve just got to keep our guard up.”
While votes are tabulated electronically, Pate emphasizes that every Iowa voter uses a paper ballot and that is the ultimate election security measure for Iowa voters.
“When they go cast their ballot, it will get counted and we won’t have any of these bad actors coming in and manipulating the process,” Pate said in Sioux Center, “so you can count on that.”
Pate’s Democratic challenger, Deidre DeJear, is meeting with students at three Des Moines area high schools today to explain the voting process and encourage 18-year-olds to participate in 2018.
(By Mark Buss, KSOU, Sioux Center; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)