A Democratic congressional candidate in Iowa who trailed by six votes after a recount said Wednesday she will forgo further legal challenges in the state and instead appeal directly to the U.S. House for review.
Rita Hart’s campaign had until Wednesday afternoon (12/2) to contest the election under Iowa law following Monday’s (11/30) certification of results in which Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks was declared the winner of the closest House race in decades.
An election contest in Iowa would have triggered the formation of a five-judge panel that would have been required to rule on who won the race by Tuesday, Dec. 8.
Hart’s campaign said that quick timeline would not allow enough time to review the ballots, including thousands of unexamined undervotes and overvotes and others that were not counted for a variety of reasons.
Instead, the campaign said that Hart would file an election contest with the U.S. House under the Federal Contested Elections Act in the coming weeks.
Such a filing, due within 30 days after Monday’s certification, will trigger a proceeding in front of the House Committee on Administration that would allow Hart to offer testimony and evidence.
The Democratic-controlled House could also direct the committee to conduct its own investigation and recount, a process that in the past has included reviewing election records and examining disputed ballots.
Ultimately, the committee would file a report to the full House with its findings on who won the most votes and recommending who should fill the seat representing southeast Iowa. The House could act on a simple majority vote.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the process would prevent Miller-Meeks from being sworn in on Jan. 3 to represent the district, which includes Davenport, Iowa City and much of southeastern Iowa.
Hart requested a recount in all 24 counties in the district after trailing by 47 votes, following the discovery of tabulation errors that twice flipped the lead back and forth between the two candidates.
The recount cut the deficit to six votes. Hart’s campaign noted that elections officials did not review all ballots that the machines considered overvotes or undervotes to determine voter intent, and were barred from considering others that were not counted during the initial canvass.
“While that recount considered more votes, limitations in Iowa law mean there are more legally cast votes left to be counted,” Hart campaign manager Zach Meunier said. “With a margin this small, it is critical that we take this next step to ensure Iowans’ ballots that were legally cast are counted.”
The campaign said that some of the uncounted ballots came from active-duty military members overseas.
Miller-Meeks campaign lawyer Alan Ostergren criticized Hart for bypassing the Iowa legal system in favor of a process that will be overseen by House Democrats, arguing that a state contest would have confirmed the outcome.
“Rita Hart has chosen a political process controlled by Nancy Pelosi over a legal process controlled by Iowa judges. All Iowans should be outraged by this decision,” he said.
The race is the closest House contest since one in Indiana in 1984. In that case, the Democratic-controlled House voted to seat the Democratic incumbent Frank McCloskey after its recount determined he won by four votes, nullifying the state’s certification of his Republican challenger as the winner.
