The race for secretary of state is one of many positions up for election Nov. 2.

The race includes three main candidates, including incumbent Michael Mauro.

The Iowa secretary of state is primarily responsible for running elections and voter registrations, keeping business records and providing media information to the public.

Mauro has held this position since he succeeded Gov. Chet Culver when Culver was elected four years ago.

“Whether it’s been as a county elections director, county auditor or now as secretary of state, I’ve been administering elections in the state of Iowa for over 25 years,” Mauro said.

Since Mauro has taken office, he worked with Cerro Gordo County to implement the Precinct Atlas electronic poll book program.

Precinct Atlas is a computer program that helps officials properly process votes during elections. It alerts officials when an inactive voter, pending voter or felon who has not had his or her rights restored attempts to vote, Mauro said.

The program is now being used in 47 of Iowa’s 99 counties.

“Precinct Atlas has been a top priority of my administration, and that’s why I’ve worked so hard to deploy the program to almost half of the counties in Iowa,” Mauro said. “My goal is to gradually expand the program to the rest of the state during the course of my second term.”

The main challengers to Mauro, a Democrat, are Republican Matt Schultz, and Libertarian Jake Porter.

Porter, 22, said he may have an edge in getting younger voters to support him because he can relate to them. He works a job in retail and is a college student.

If elected, Porter wants to make being a first-time candidate in elections easier and make starting small businesses simpler.

“I know the struggles that small business owners face trying to start their business, and I know the struggles that first-time political candidates have while trying to run for office,” Porter said. “I’d like to make it easier to do those two things.”

He also wants to cut the salary of the Iowa secretary of state from $103,000 to $50,000.

“I’d like to go back to the state treasury and save the taxpayers that money,” Porter said. “It can be used to cut the taxes for the Iowans who are struggling right now.”

Schultz is pushing to require people to have a photo ID at elections before they are allowed to vote in order to prevent voter fraud.

“We have to show an ID before we get on an airplane, before we open a checking account. We even have to show an ID before we buy an adult beverage, so why not when we vote?” Schultz said in a recent debate featuring all three candidates. “I want to be a leader, and I want to stand up and work with the county auditors and make sure that our state is not opening its door for election fraud.”

While Mauro and Porter agree that voter fraud should be stopped as best as possible, they don’t agree that having a photo ID requirement is the right path.

“Right now, there are over 345,000 Iowans who have already requested an absentee ballot for this year’s general election. Under a photo ID program, would these voters copy their ID and send it with their ballot?” Mauro said.

He also questioned how people serving in the military overseas would be able to vote if they had to show a photo ID.

Porter has is somewhat skeptical of using photo IDs at elections as well.

“First of all, we have to find out if this is going to disenfranchise voters. Secondly, there is the issue of how we’re going to pay for it,” Porter said.