Nearly four weeks after the election, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks was declared the official winner Monday of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race — by just six votes, the closest congressional race in the country and one that flips a seat held by Democrats for 14 years.
The state canvassing board Monday certified results for the race following vote recounts in all 24 counties in the southeastern Iowa district that includes Iowa City, Davenport and Burlington...
...Miller-Meeks, a state senator and ophthalmologist from Ottumwa, edged out Democrat and former state Sen. Rita Hart of Wheatland, with 196,964 votes to Hart’s 196,958.
Recount boards may consider only ballots considered on election night, per state law. That means that even if a recount board were aware of ballots unlawfully excluded from the initial count, it could not include those ballots in a recount, according to Hart’s campaign. That issue would have to go to an election contest.Miller-Meeks’ six-vote lead represents the slimmest margin in any congressional race since 1984, when Indiana’s 8th District was decided by four votes.
https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/iowa-us-house-race-mariannette-miller-meeks-wins-6-votes-rita-hart-district-2-20201130
