A Democratic House candidate in Iowa who lost by six votes out of more than 394,000 cast would be viewed as illegitimate by a majority of voters in the state if the Democratic-majority chamber seats her anyway, a poll shows.
Iowa’s state canvass board certified results for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District after a districtwide count in all 24 counties in the race between Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Rita Hart. The board on Nov. 30 declared Miller-Meeks the winner of the election by only six votes in a southeast Iowa seat left open by the retirement of Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack.
However, Hart announced two days later that rather than going to court to contest the results, she would file a petition with the House Committee on Administration, under the Federal Contested Elections Act. Under that 1969 law, and the Constitution more broadly, the House has the final say on who to seat or not to.
According to the survey, which was conducted for American Action Network by Republican polling firm Cygnal,7-in-10 voters in the district say a dispute about election results should be decided by Iowa’s courts, while just 9% want the dispute decided by lawmakers in Washington. The poll includes two-thirds of voters who say they voted for Hart in the November election.
Additionally, 58% of voters in the poll say that if the House voted to overturn the state-certified election results and install Hart in Congress, they would view her as an illegitimate member. This includes 58% of voters in Davenport and 69% of voters in Des Moines, who would view her as illegitimate. Twenty-five percent of Hart’s own voters would also question her legitimacy, the poll says.
The Cygnal poll of 400 likely voters in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District has a margin of error of 4.9%.
Congress last intervened itself in a closely disputed 1984 Indiana congressional election, which House Republicans accused the Democratic majority at the time of following rigged rules in the House-sponsored recount of the election.
Indiana’s 8th Congressional District House race that year ended in a slim victory for Republican nominee Rick McIntyre against the Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank McCloskey, who was seeking a second term.
McCloskey led McIntyre by 72 votes on election night. But following two state recounts, McIntyre led McCloskey by margins of 34 and 418 votes.
However, McCloskey contested the race after filing a petition to the House and following a four-month contentious battle on a House Administration Committee panel led by then-California Democratic Rep. Leon Panetta. Ultimately, McCloskey was seated as the winner of the election.
McCloskey remained in the seat until he was swept out in the 1994 Republican takeover of the chamber by Republican Rep. John Hostettler.
