“This state has a pretty darn good track record and I really resent anybody trying to blemish it,” said Pate, according to the eastern Iowa Gazette. “Iowa has got one of the cleanest, best election systems in the country, and I guarantee every eligible Iowa voter will be able to cast their ballot for the Nov. 8 election.”

But this week, after a surprisingly broad Republican sweep of Iowa, Pate is proposing a voter ID law for Iowa, which would allow driver's licenses, passports, and military IDs for voting, but not student IDs. The proposed law also includes measures that would shrink the amount of time to request an absentee ballot and require an ID number for requesting one.

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“I believe Iowa's elections are clean and fair,” said Pate at a news conference. “But we need to take steps to keep them that way. It's like locking the door at your home when you leave for work in the morning or you go to bed at night.”

Nothing about Pate's analysis had changed since Election Day. Iowa, in fact, had become a source of chagrin for voter ID campaigners, several times. Pate's predecessor, Matt Schultz, spent two years and $250,000 to probe cases of illegal voting across the state. That found just 117 illegally cast votes, charges against 27 suspected fraudulent voters, and six fraud convictions, in elections where more than 1.4 million people went to the polls. In October, Iowa drew national attention when a Trump supporter, panicked over election “rigging,” voted twice.