Iowa Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was sworn in and seated Sunday with her fellow members of Congress, but her time in office might be fleeting if the House Administration Committee decides her Democratic opponent won the state’s 2nd District election.
Democrat Rita Hart filed a petition to the House Administration Committee on Dec. 22 contesting the House race after Iowa state election officials certified the razor-thin, six-vote margin favoring Miller-Meeks over Hart, following a recount of all 24 counties in which over 394,400 ballots were cast.
Miller-Meeks has 30 days to respond to Hart’s petition and must file her paperwork by Jan. 22.
“The State Canvassing Board has officially certified the results of the 2020 general election. We had record turnout of more than 1.7 million voters & 76% participation. The official result in #IA02 is @millermeeks 196,964 to @RitaHartIA 196,958. 6 vote difference,” Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate tweeted.
The House has not intervened in a House race since the 1984 election cycle when the result of Indiana’s 8th Congressional District election was challenged by the Democratic incumbent who lost on election night and on two subsequent state recounts. However, the Democratic House-led majority sponsored a recount headed up by the House Administration Committee, which ultimately found four months later the Democratic incumbent won by four votes.
During the Indiana election dispute, House Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill refused to seat the certified Republican winner of the election, Rick McIntyre, on the day the lower chamber members were sworn in.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remarked in her last press briefing that Miller-Meeks, unlike McIntyre before her, would be seated with the rest of the freshman class but that her seating was only “provisional” while Hart’s petition to the House Administration Committee is reviewed.
“It’s always meant whoever gets the most votes under the Contested Election Act wins, so what a concept,” House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, told the Washington Examiner, confirming that Miller-Meeks’s time as the official representative in her district is dependent on the outcome of the decision of her committee.
“As I understand it, the Indiana case was not filed under the federal contested election. It was done separately. Under the Federal Contested Election Act, the presumption is on the part of the person who is certificated by the state, the burden of proof is on the challenger that they didn’t actually get a majority of the votes. So the contest is filed,” Lofgren explained. “The holder of the certificate has 30 days to respond, and then we adjudicate the dispute between the two. It could involve looking at ballots or not. It depends.”
The last time a certified member-elect was seated but later unseated by a contest following a congressional investigation was in 1937 between two candidates from New Hampshire, Republican Arthur Byron Jenks and Democrat Alphonse Roy.
House Administration ranking member Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, took issue with Democrats’ deeming Miller-Meeks with what appeared to be a different status to the rest of the congressional membership.
“There’s no provisional status for a member of Congress. Once you’re sworn in, you’re sworn in. They’ll have to unseat a sworn-in member of Congress. There was no objection on the floor, and every Democrat who was on the floor today voted to accept election certificates in every state that was part of that motion,” Davis told the Washington Examiner.
He added, “Why would they not also accept the election certificate in the state of Iowa? Is Cindy Axne provisional? Because she has the same election certificate. Do we need to question her election certificate? It’s just games in politics that they’re playing.”
Miller-Meeks said she does not view herself as anything other than her district’s representative.
“I was sworn in today. I’m the congresswoman from Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, and I’m going to do everything I can to represent them and put forward on our policies,” she told the Washington Examiner.
Miller-Meeks explained, “Every legal vote was counted. We won on Election Day. We won on the conclusion of the 24-county canvass and audit. We won on the recount. I’m sworn in. I’m the congresswoman. And what’s most important is that we have to remember that the people of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District deserve representation.”
She added, “They are going to have representation, the process and the procedure will work out as it will. But in the meantime, I’ve been elected to do a job and to serve the people of Iowa. And that’s what I’m going to do.”
