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The historically close race for the second seat in the Iowa Congressional District could be approaching a tie.
Democrat Rita Hart cut Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ lead to nine votes out of more than 394,400 cast Wednesday, and tally boards in all but two of the district’s 24 counties reported their results.
The race is the closest in the country and could be further adjusted before Monday’s certification deadline.
A single-digit victory is possible for either candidate, as is a tie, which under state law would result in the winner’s name being drawn from a hat, bowl, or some other container.
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Hart garnered 26 votes in Scott County after the tally board suspended the session Wednesday without addressing a discrepancy in the number of absentee ballots recorded.
His campaign says he hopes to get nine votes in Jasper County too, if the results remain unchanged after another automatic recount of absentee ballots concludes Wednesday night.
Wong maye-e / ap
As of Wednesday, Miller-Meeks has 196,880 votes, Hart has 196,845. That’s 49.91 percent to 49.91 percent, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office.
That could tie the race only with Clinton County, where Hart lives on a Wheatland farm and served as an educator and state senator, yet to be reported.
Clinton’s tally board has already reviewed most of her ballots, and Hart has so far garnered only one vote, said county auditor Eric Van Lancker.
The board will return Saturday morning to finish counting the last 5,000 absent ballots, he said.
A state scrutiny board is expected to meet on Monday, the legal deadline, to certify the results of the race.
The final candidate is likely to file legal action to challenge the result of the recount, which would trigger a proceeding led by a judicial panel.
The result will help determine the size of the slim majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives and whether Republicans trade a second seat in Iowa.
Candidates are vying to replace Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack, who will retire after seven terms.
Hart requested a district-wide recount after initial certifications from counties showed he lagged 47 votes behind, following an election in which reporting errors shifted the advantage among candidates.
The count has been slow but full of drama as the race has tightened.
As of Wednesday, Miller-Meeks has 196,880 votes, Hart has 196,845. That’s 49.91 percent to 49.91 percent, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office.
Charlie Neibergall / AP
Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s campaign has already argued that the process used in Scott County to count votes was illegal.
Scott County, the most populous in the district, was set to certify the 26-vote change Wednesday that would help Hart erase most of the Miller-Meeks lead.
But the county board postponed the meeting after the auditor found the recount registered 131 more absentee votes than the previous scrutiny.
The county tally board reconvened Wednesday to determine whether and how to address the discrepancy, which could be the result of a machine or math error, or the discovery of ballots that were not counted on election night.
The board voted 2-1 to adjourn the session, rejecting the Miller-Meeks designee’s request for an automatic recount of absentee ballots.
“The absentee ballot count in Scott County was unreliable,” said Miller-Meeks campaign attorney Alan Ostergren.
Compared to the county’s previous vote, Hart added 105 votes and Miller-Meeks added 79.
The Miller-Meeks campaign has already argued that the process used in Scott County to count votes was illegal.
It involved using a machine to count the ballots and then hand examining those that the machine could not read to determine the voter’s intent.
Maria Altaffer / AP
Democrat Rita Hart called for a districtwide recount after initial certifications from the counties showed she lagged by just 47 votes.
Representatives for Miller-Meeks argue that Iowa law requires counts to be done by type or by hand, not a combination of the two.
Hart’s campaign notes that the process has been approved by the tally board, which includes representatives from both campaigns and a neutral person, and is supported by a Scott County legal opinion.
In Jasper County, a ballot tabulating machine broke down during counting and had to be repaired, county auditor Dennis Parrott said.
The Miller-Meeks campaign has alleged that once repaired, the machine could not reliably read ballots and questioned the count after Hart gained ground.
The tally board brought in a new tabulating machine Wednesday afternoon to count 10,999 absent ballots that were in question, Parrott said.
Final results could be approved late at night.
Attention will then turn to Clinton, where the auditor said the tally board will meet Saturday at 8.30 am and work for hours.
“To get a US congressman out of a cup of coffee, I don’t know about that, right? But we have these rules. If we get to a tie, we have the tiebreaker, ” Van Lancker said.
“I am sure that due to the processes that we have, we will reach a result that we can trust.”
