GOP ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, which has jurisdiction over election policy and federal contests filed with the House, Rodney Davis wrote an op-ed titled, “Will House Democrats steal a congressional seat in Iowa’s 2nd District?”
Davis said that in Iowa’s 2nd District, every legal vote was counted and we know this because the votes were counted and recounted using a timely, transparent, and bipartisan process.
Republican Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has had her victory certified after the recount showed she had a six vote victory.
As Davis noted, under Iowa law, if a candidate disagreed with the state’s certification, they could still challenge this decision in Iowa courts where the candidate needs to prove there are votes that have not been counted that should have been.
Miller-Meeks’ challenger Rita Hart chose to forgo this step and instead, announced on Dec. 2 that she would move to file a federal contest where Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats, instead of Iowans, would decide what votes are legal and which ones are not.
In his op-ed, Davis recalled a 1985 election, when the Democrats held the House by a wide margin, but Republican Ronald Reagan had won re-election, they refused to seat Republican Richard McIntyre, who was the certified winner in Indiana’s 8th district.
McCloskey filed a federal contest with the House and Democrats sent a partisan task force to Indiana where they then determined ballots not valid under Indiana law should have been counted and McCloskey ended up winning by 4 votes.
On May 1, 1985, the House voted to seat McCloskey, even though ten Democrats joined every Republican in voting against seating him and the contest was ultimately dubbed the “Bloody Eighth.”
Davis believes that the partisan federal contest of 1985 eroded public trust in our elections and undermined the integrity of our election process at that time.
Moving forward with a federal contest in Iowa’s 2nd District, when the candidate’s judicial option was not even pursued, would be purely a political decision, especially given Pelosi’s razor-thin majority, Davis noted.
Davis wondered what whether House Democrats will “stand with Iowans or Speaker Pelosi?”
“I hope my colleagues decide against overriding the people of Iowa’s 2nd District and seat Rep-elect Miller-Meeks on Jan. 3,” Davis concluded.
Miller-Meeks tweeted the op-ed earlier and echoed Davis’ message as she said, “The voters of Iowa have spoken. Rita Hart should listen.”
The voters of Iowa have spoken.
— Dr. Miller-Meeks (@millermeeks) December 18, 2020
Rita Hart should listen. #ia02 https://t.co/80ExbvhKAK
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