Democrat Rita Hart alleges 22 ballots improperly uncounted, asks Congress to investigate

Zachary Oren Smith
Iowa City Press-Citizen

The Iowa Democrat who lost the race for the state's 2nd Congressional District seat by only six votes has delivered her formal challenge to the U.S. House of Representatives. The race is the tightest in the nation, split with the Republican in the lead 196,964 to 196,958.

The candidate ahead changed twice before Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks' victory was certified by the state on Nov. 30. While a congressional challenge was on both candidates' contingency plans, Democrat Rita Hart announced on Dec. 3 that her campaign would bypass Iowa's contest court system and instead petition Congress directly.

On Tuesday, Rita Hart delivered her petition to the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Administration, calling for an investigation on two counts: one, that 22 legally cast ballots were unlawfully excluded, and two, that the 24 counties' recount boards' procedures were irregular across the district.

Read:Full text of Iowa Democrat Rita Hart's petition to Congress

"Everyone has acknowledged that there are uncounted votes left and, after reviewing those ballots and making sure they are counted, it will be clear that I have won this election," Hart said in a release. "It is crucial to me to make sure that this bipartisan review by the U.S. House is fair. Iowans deserve to know that the candidate who earned the most votes is seated.

"I am that candidate."

Miller-Meeks repeatedly told the Press-Citizen in an interview that "every legal ballot (in the 2nd District race) was counted" and that Hart was attempting to use a "partisan political process" to change the election's result. But Miller-Meeks also acknowledged in an interview on PBS' Iowa Press that "there were votes that were cast that were for me also that were not counted and that I did not receive."

Miller-Meeks' campaign has 30 days to respond to Hart's petition, although Peter Whippy, the communications director of the U.S. House Committee on Administration said Tuesday morning the clock on that deadline had yet to start, saying he had not yet received the petition from the Clerk of the House.

Miller-Meeks spokesperson Eric Woolson said Tuesday, "The next step in the process is for Congresswoman-elect Miller-Meeks to file a response to the challenge, which she will do at the appropriate time."

Woolson declined to comment on whether there was validity to Hart's claims about the 22 Iowans' ballots.

Whippy said the committee won't consider Hart's petition until Miller-Meeks has responded. Committee members will then have the opportunity to consider whether to launch an investigation. But they could simply dismiss the claims, too.

► Iowa's 2nd Congressional District race might be decided by the U.S. House:Here's what you need to know.

Democrat Rita Hart speaks during an interview, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, at the Press-Citizen office in Iowa City, Iowa.

The allegations: 22 ignored ballots, 24 'haphazard' county recounts

In her filings, Hart claims there were 22 legally cast ballots unlawfully excluded from the state's certified results in the district, including:

  • 2 ballots in Scott County: According to the 176-page notice of consent, two Hart voters allegedly tried to vote curbside, but when poll workers tried to insert their ballots, a machine wouldn't accept them. The county recount board did not include these ballots because they were not included in the initial canvass.
  • 9 ballots in Marion County: The county recount board allegedly excluded five Hart votes, three Miller-Meeks votes and one for neither candidate. According to the filing, the board was considering a box of 466 ballots that was labeled to contain 457 ballots, the number counted in the initial canvass. The board voted that it lacked the authority to consider ballots not included in the initial canvass.
  • 1 provisional ballot in Johnson County: The Johnson County Auditor's Office allegedly made a mistake, separating one Hart voter's provisional ballot from her submitted proof of residency and identity — materials that would validate her ballot. Because of this error, the ballot was not counted. The filing claims the office apologized to the voter in a letter. The Auditor's Office was not immediately available for comment.
  • 1 absentee ballot in Johnson County: The county recount board allegedly rejected one Hart voter's ballot, not because it lacked a signature but because the signature was in a blank space above the signature field.
  • 2 absentee ballots cast in Johnson County: Two Hart voters alleged their absentee ballot return envelopes were already sealed upon delivery. These ballots were not considered because the security envelope was opened prior to the voter securely sealing them.
  • 5 absentee ballots cast in Johnson and Scott counties: The auditor's offices of two counties allegedly rejected five Hart ballots because they were improperly sealed. According to the filing, Johnson County made up a disproportionate number of the total ballots rejected for being "improperly sealed." They argue Johnson County had a stricter standard for an absentee ballot's seal.
  • 2 absentee ballots cast in Des Moines and Wapello counties: Two Hart voters from Des Moines and Wapello counties allegedly returned their ballots to a Linn County Auditor's Office dropbox. While in the hands of election officials in time, they were not counted because they were not in their respective election officials' offices on time. The filing argues these should be included.

► 'Every legal ballot was counted':Miller-Meeks reflects on election recount, potential Congressional review

In a news conference Tuesday morning, Marc Elias, a lawyer who specializes in elections who's currently working for the Hart campaign, said the petition comes down to whether votes should be counted.

"You can judge it for yourself. You can look at it and ask, 'Should ballots that the county acknowledged should have been counted but weren't, should those be included'," Elias told reporters. "... That's not a hyperbole. That's not a partisan question. That's a question: if ballots should have been counted."

In its filing, the campaign also asks the House to review the recount process across the district's 24 southeast Iowa counties, which, the filing reads, was "haphazard and non-uniform and, in several counties, failed to conform to law."

Iowa Code gives county recount boards the ability to determine a process for their respective recounts. The recount boards consist of two members appointed by each campaign and a third mutually agreed upon member. These boards were able to choose to count each precinct's votes with either with a high-speed, vote-counting machine or by hand, considering each ballot for voter intent. Three counties opted for a hybrid version involving a machine to assist the hand count— a method the Iowa Secretary of State's Office opposed.

"There's no suggestion in this filing, nor do I think there are any people, that tried to do anything wrong," Elias said. "Elections are — under the best of circumstances — challenging to administer. In the middle of a pandemic, they were even more challenging to administer.

"What you are seeing here are errors that were made."

► 'Whose vote should not count?':Hart wants Congress to weigh in on Iowa's 2nd District

For relief, Hart is asking the House to void the state's certified results on the grounds that officials here allegedly failed to account for every lawful vote. She asks the 22 ballots identified be included in a new canvass of ballots, and that a full hand recount be conducted, including of overvotes, undervotes and write-ins.

She also asks the House to reimburse attorneys' fees associated with the appeal.

U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, who represents Iowa's 3rd Congressional District and will be Iowa's only Democrat in Congress if Hart losses her appeal to the House, said Tuesday she supports Hart's petition, adding the tight margin demands a transparent process that ensures all properly-cast votes in the contest are counted.

"We’ve seen the margin of this race continue to tighten, and both candidates acknowledge that there are still votes left to be counted in what has become one of the closest federal elections of the past century," Axne said in a release. "It is critical that every Iowan’s voice is heard in this election — and, to that end, Rita Hart has Constitutional and legal grounds to pursue that goal at the federal level."

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The process is a rarity: Congress last took at petition up 35 years ago. In January 1985, a Democratic-controlled House voted not to seat either candidate in Indiana's 8th Congressional District race. After a long recount process, the nonpartisan General Accounting Office found that Democrat Frank McCloskey had won the race by four votes. House Democrats then voted to seat McCloskey, reversing the result of the state's recount to the protest of Republicans, who walked out of the chamber.

Hart's petition will be referred to the House Administration Committee. If they decide not to dismiss it, the committee could investigate the election through a process like a district-wide hand recount, as Hart has called for and which did not occur during the state's recount period. Based on that investigation, the committee will then make a recommendation to the full House, and a simple majority vote by the House will determine who is seated.

Zachary Oren Smith writes about government, growth and development for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach him at zsmith@press-citizen.com, at 319 -339-7354 or on Twitter via @ZacharyOS.