The race for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional Seat in the U.S. House of Representatives has officially been contested by Democrat Rita Hart, and Marion County is part of the legal contest. The challenge is based on the grounds of improperly excluded ballots and unlawful and non-uniform recount procedures. The election was canvassed with Republican Mariannete Miller-Meeks being declared the winner by six votes.

Hart alleges that 22 lawful ballots were excluded during the canvass from Marion, Johnson, and Scott Counties. Of those, nine were from Marion County. The notice of contest says that when Marion County’s recount was conducted on November 20th, the recount board opened a sealed box labeled as containing 457 ballots. Upon the board’s recount of the ballots, it was found that the box actually contained 466 ballots. The board concluded that these additional nine ballots were lawfully cast.

However, a majority of board members concluded that they did not have the authority to count ballots that had not been counted in the initial canvass. As a result, the recount board did not include the nine absentee ballots described as “at the end of the stack of ballots” in their final recount.

The board then unanimously agreed to separately tabulate those nine ballots and record the results. Five were cast for Hart, three were cast for Miller-Meeks, and one did not have a vote for either candidate.

The notice of contest concluded that those ballots should have been included in the final district-wide count, which would result in a net gain of two votes for Hart.

Statewide, the notice of contest alleges that 18 of the 22 missing ballots were votes for Hart. The final result of the election with these 22 ballots included would result in a Hart win by nine votes.