As our John McCormack noted, Republican House candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by six votes out of 394,000 ballots cast, one of the slimmest margins of victory in American political history. The election results in this congressional district were counted and re-counted and certified by all state election authorities.
But that’s not good enough for Hart. She wants the House of Representatives to refuse to seat Miller-Meeks, contending some votes for her were not counted. Today she asked the House to investigate the election and conduct a third recount of the votes, declaring in her petition, “After the House has conducted its investigation and all lawful votes are accurately counted, Contestant Hart finally will be seated as the new U.S representative from the Second Congressional District.”
Some Congress-watchers are skeptical that 218 House Democrats will vote to ignore the state’s certified election results and begin an investigation that could take weeks or months. It will be interesting to see where Iowa’s lone remaining Democrat in Congress, Cindy Axne, comes down. Axne has avoided commenting on the election dispute; Hart is asking Axne to override the same certified election results that include Axne’s own reelection to Congress.