Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks‘s time as a House member may be short if her vanquished Democratic opponent successfully argues she won more votes. And House Democrats, in the majority, could cite precedent from 1937.
House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, confirmed to the Washington Examiner Sunday that Miller-Meeks could be removed from office should the contest mounted by her 2nd Congressional District Democratic opponent, Rita Hart, find the challenger earned more votes.
Miller-Meeks, a former state senator, beat Hart by six votes out of more than 394,000 cast. Miller-Meeks was certified as the winner following a recount and a recanvass of the district’s 24 counties. Hart, in her filing to the House Administration Committee, claims that 22 ballots were excluded from the final tally, which, if included, would have favored Hart to win the election.
Miller-Meeks was seated on Sunday when the new Congress opened. But Democrats argued it was only “provisional,” prompting House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis to respond, “There’s no provisional status for a member of Congress.”
The last time Congress seated an elected House member, only to later remove them and swear in his opponent following a House panel’s investigation into the race’s ballot count, happened in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District after the 1936 election cycle.
According to the House archives, Republican Arthur Byron Jenks was initially elected to New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District in 1936. But his Democratic opponent, Alphonse Roy, disputed the victory, and a series of recounts ensued. The Ballot Commission of New Hampshire ruled in Jenks’s favor, certifying the victory for the Republican. Jenks was sworn into office in January 1937.
However, Roy contested the race to what was then known as the House Committee on Elections. Seven congressional members of the committee spoke to voters in Newton, New Hampshire, in August 1937 and asked the citizens if they voted in the 1936 election cycle. The members found that there was never any missing ballots, which led them to determine that Roy was the new winner of the 1st Congressional District.
On June 9, 1938, the Democratic-majority House debated for three hours before approving the committee’s decision and deciding to remove Jenks from his seat and swearing in Roy afterward.
However, Roy only represented the New Hampshire district for a few months because Jenks promptly won the seat back during the 1938 election cycle.
