The tightest congressional race in years is not over yet and could be settled by the Democratic-majority House.
Although Iowa’s state canvass board on Monday certified results for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District after a districtwide tabulation in all 24 counties and officially declared Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks the winner of the election by a mere six votes, Democrat Rita Hart announced Wednesday that she will file a petition in coming weeks with the House Committee on Administration under the Federal Contested Elections Act.
Congress has involved itself in close races in seldom instances previously, including a closely disputed 1984 Indiana congressional election, which House Republicans accused the Democratic majority at the time of following rigged rules in the counting that led to what was described as a ”raucous demonstration” on the House floor by GOP lawmakers.
The petition challenges the result of the race, thereby waiving a legal challenge in court. Hart had a deadline of Wednesday afternoon to file a legal challenge to a five-member judicial panel presided over by the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. This panel, as state law dictates, would have been mandated to decide who won the race by Tuesday.
Alan Ostergren, attorney for Miller-Meeks’s campaign, in a statement said, “Rita Hart has chosen to avoid Iowa’s judicial system because she knows that a fair, objective analysis of this election would show what we already know: Miller-Meeks won.”
Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, previously represented by Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack who retired this cycle, set Miller-Meeks against Hart in a race with over 394,000 ballots that were cast.
On election night, Miller-Meeks was ahead by 47 votes, but after Hart called for a recount of each county, the Iowa Republican’s lead was trimmed down to six votes, with 196,964 ballots cast for Miller-Meeks and 196,958 to Hart.
The Associated Press has not called a winner for the race and said it will do so after all legal appeals are exhausted.
