22 Legally-Cast, Uncounted Ballots Will Put Hart Ahead by Nine Votes

Today, the Iowa Democratic Party announced a two-week-long series highlighting the 22 voters whose legally-cast ballots have yet to be counted in the race for Iowa’s Second Congressional District. The project comes as several of the disenfranchised voters have spoken out, demanding that their votes be counted.

On December 22, following an initial state recount process that left thousands of ballots in question, Rita Hart filed a Notice of Contest with the U.S. House of Representatives which details 22 legally cast ballots that were unlawfully excluded from the state-certified results. The Notice explains why the House should count every legally cast ballot to guarantee fulfillment of each voter’s constitutional right.

The yet-uncounted ballots include:

  • 2 curbside ballots cast by voters living with a disability in Scott County who legally cast their ballots under Iowa law, are permitted to vote from their vehicles and have their votes counted. Both of these were votes for Hart.

  • 9 absentee ballots cast by voters in Marion County who legally cast their ballots but inexplicably had them not counted in the initial canvass and therefore the ballots were not permitted to be counted in the recount. 5 of these votes were for Hart, 3 for Miller-Meeks, and 1 was an undervote for neither candidate.

  • 1 provisional ballot cast by a voter in Johnson County that was legally cast and for which the voter provided the requisite proof of residency and identity by the November 9 deadline, but was uncounted due to election worker error. This was a vote for Hart.

  • 1 absentee ballot cast by a voter in Johnson County, which was unlawfully rejected by election workers due to the location of a signature on an affidavit envelope. This was a vote for Hart.

  • 2 absentee ballots cast by voters in Johnson County who received pre-sealed ballot envelopes and therefore had to unseal the envelopes to place their ballots inside before securely sealing them. These votes were unlawfully rejected. These were votes for Hart.

  • 5 absentee ballots cast by voters in Johnson and Scott Counties who have sworn under oath that they sealed their return envelopes but election workers rejected the ballots for not being “properly sealed.” These were votes for Hart.

  • 2 absentee ballots cast by voters in Des Moines and Wapello Counties who, despite placing their ballots in drop boxes by the deadline had their ballots rejected because the drop boxes were in Linn County. These were votes for Hart.

“The Democratic Party has a strong history of not only ensuring that voters’ constitutional right to cast a vote is protected, but also of ensuring that those votes are counted,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Mark Smith. “These voters deserve to have their voices heard and the procedure being undertaken by the U.S. House is the correct course of action to ensure that all votes are counted in this race. Regardless of who provisionally holds this seat, it’s imperative that the will of the voters decides who ultimately represents them in the U.S. House.”

**To read the full Notice of Contest filed by Rita Hart click here.