The clock is ticking for Democratic congressional candidate Rita Hart to file a petition with the House Administration Committee to contest a race the Iowa State Canvassing Board declared she lost by six votes last month.
After Hart lost to her Republican opponent, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, on election night by just 47 votes, Hart called for a recount of all 24 counties in the 2nd Congressional District, which ultimately resulted in Miller-Meeks’s favor by a razor-thin margin of 196,964 to 196,958.
On Nov. 30, the state canvassing board certified the close election results, and two days later, Hart announced she would file a petition to the House of Representatives contesting the outcome of the race.
Her campaign manager argued in a statement on election night, “Under Iowa law, this recount process was designed to count ballots that had already been tallied, meaning that additional legal ballots may have yet to be counted.”
Hart has until Dec. 30, or 30 days from certification, to file her petition to the House Administration Committee under the Federal Contested Elections Act.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who serves as vice chairman of the committee, will review the petition and lead the panel of members, which will decide how to go forward with settling the results of the election.
The committee previously sent lawyers to observe the state’s recount of all the district’s counties, a routine measure taken when any close congressional race goes into a recount.
New York’s contested race in the 22nd Congressional District presently has observers sent from the committee to watch the canvassing of the election’s challenged ballots. Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested this race, where the Republican leads by 12 votes, may be settled by the House, it is still under a court’s jurisdiction, and a winner has yet to be certified.
Until then, neither party can petition the House to contest the race.
