Flipping of states in previous elections

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After I voted in a presidential election for the first time in 2020, it was also the first time I ever cared to notice that apparently, people in rural areas tend to vote republican. I’ll use my state of residence as an example. In 2020 Trump had won a majority of the counties in Iowa except for the counties that have the biggest cities in the state. However, upon looking at date from elections of the last 60 or so years, there have been a lot of them in which those same rural counties had voted blue. As recently as 2012, Obama had won Iowa. In 2016 and 2020, there’s been a red wave except for urban areas. That also happened a couple times before where Iowans voted for Nixon in the late 60s/early 70s and for Reagan in the 80s, but voted for Clinton in the 90s. It’s very fascinating to me how that happens. But can anyone explain why states apparently flip so often?

Some states hover around the 50-50 mark. So when one side, or the other, is trending (for whatever reason) they flip because the one side just goes up slightly-but enough to win the majority of the popular vote- which delvers ALL of the electorial votes of that state to that side. Its not like every single Iowan adult changes their mind back and forth every four years. Just a few swing voters.

It is my understanding that once an election is certified, the results cannot be changed.