Will House Democrats steal a congressional seat in Iowa's 2nd District?
By Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Opinion Contributor — 12/17/20 06:00 PM EST
In 1985, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives decided an election and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could do it again.
The day after the election in 1984, Republican Richard McIntyre was ahead of incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey by 34 votes and after the state’s recount, McIntyre’s lead grew to 418 votes. In the weeks following the election, McIntyre was certified the winner of Indiana’s 8th District.
But come January 1985, House Democrats refused to seat McIntyre.
Instead, McCloskey filed a federal contest with the House and Democrats sent a partisan task force to Indiana. They then determined ballots not valid under Indiana law should have been counted.
They changed the rules. Under the new rules, McCloskey was now ahead by 4 votes.
On May 1, 1985, the House voted to seat McCloskey. Ten Democrats joined every Republican in voting against seating him.
This contest was dubbed the “Bloody Eighth†and House Democrats gearing up to repeat this same battle in Iowa’s 2nd District where the Democrat candidate, Rita Hart, intends to file a federal contest in the House to challenge the Republican, Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who has been certified the winner by the state of Iowa.
Democrats are looking to change the rules of the game after the game has already been played, which is something they have tried to do throughout the 2020 cycle. In court case after court case, Washington Democrats have sought to change the rules people in that state vote under — even after voting has already begun. One example in the last election is in North Carolina where Democrats tried to change the requirements for absentee ballots even after 300,000 voters had already cast their ballots. This would mean some voters would cast their ballots under a different set of rules than the rest of North Carolina.
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https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/530732-will-house-democrats-steal-a-congressional-seat-in-iowas-2nd
