(Radio Iowa) -A 42-year-old Marshalltown man has been charged with voter fraud for registering to vote and casting a ballot in a special election in July. According to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, 42-year-old Jorge Oscar Sanchez-Vasquez is a legal resident of the U-S, but not a citizen and he’s been charged with two counts of election misconduct. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate — the state’s top election official — says the law says very clearly you have to be a U-S citizen to vote.

“We have voted ID, so we are establishing a baseline. You have to prove who you are,” Pate says. “We also are working with our partners. We work with the court system. There are various folks who help us identify those folks who are here legally, but not U.S. citizens.” Pate says the role of election workers is to make sure only eligible voters vote.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (RI file photo)

“Even one, two, five, 100 — whatever the number is not acceptable, so we’ll keep trying to make sure we’re protecting and keeping that away,” Pate says. “I don’t believe in Iowa we have any of those types of massive voter fraud. I think the bad boys and girls, the really serious illegals are not looking to be recognized for anything. They’re here just to stay under the radar, so I don’t think we’ll see a lot of it at this time in Iowa.”

Pate made his comments during taping of the Iowa P-B-S program “Iowa Press” — a few hours before the charges against the Marshalltown man were announced.