DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa election officials in each of the state’s 99 counties will hand count votes in one randomly selected precinct for the general election as an added security measure.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says the manual vote count process was added to Iowa’s election security process in a 2017 law and will be used for the first time in Iowa this year.

Pate says his office will select a precinct in each county and officials will hand count votes to be sure the totals match the electronic counter that scanned and counted ballots. Iowa uses paper ballots counted by machines.

Pate said Monday personnel from homeland security, public safety, Iowa National Guard, and the Iowa chief information office will oversee an election day security operations center to respond if any problems develop.