Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate speaking during a press conference about election security Wednesday morning at Camp Dodge.
(Johnston, IA) -- An election security center at Camp Dodge, north of Des Moines, will be up and running for Tuesday, November 5th. Military personnel from the Iowa Army National Guard and Air National Guard will monitor election operations and returns through the night.
Iowa's state elections division will also be on the lookout for any issues or irregularities through the election.
"We watch more trends," said Paul Pate, Iowa's Secretary of State, "we want to make sure things are going more smoothly."
Pate says physical attacks, like the recent fires that damaged ballots in Oregon and a ballot box in Washington, don't happen very often in Iowa's elections.
"Nine out of ten times it doesn't happen in Iowa, but it's better to be ready than to be responding to a problem if we can." Pate said. "They're watching nationally, if they see a certain type of activity going on one part of the state versus another, then we want to make sure to alert our poll workers and our people out there to watch for that."
Pate spoke as part of press conference regarding election security at Camp Dodge on Wednesday.