LETTER: Rita Hart deserves her seat in Congress

Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Administration voted to commence adjudication on the merits of Rita Hart’s contest. I hope this means we will see this election decided soon--we have been denied our rightful representation for too long already.

Last November, twenty-two voters in this second congressional district were left disenfranchised after the initial election results were tallied. Unfortunately, in the ensuing recount, their votes were not added, according to an antiquated Iowa law. After the recount, which was done sloppily and in various ways across all 24, the Iowa Secretary of State declared Mariannette Miller-Meeks the winner by six votes.

We will probably never know why these twenty-two ballots were mistakenly thrown out, and we can assume they were honest mistakes by well-meaning election workers. But eighteen of them were cast for Rita Hart, which means that when they are counted--as they should be--Rita Hart will be representing us in Congress.