On February 5, 2020, New York state-certified its election results in the state’s 22nd Congressional District, with Republican Claudia Tenney declared the winner, defeating incumbent Congressman Anthony Brindsi by 109 votes.
This process took 94 days.
If you thought that this was the final race of 2020, you would be wrong.
The last contested Congressional race of 2020 is Iowa’s second congressional district. On November 3, 2020, the race was too close to call between Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart. After recounts, Iowa’s bipartisan elections board certified the Republican the winner by six votes out of nearly 400,000.
With this certification, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi provisionally seated the Republican Meeks.
Hart formally contested the election results — but not with the state of Iowa, but with the House of Representatives under the Federal Contested Elections Act, which allows the House jurisdiction to settle election disputes for elections to the U.S. House.
On Friday, February 19, the House Administration Committee met to develop its procedures to review Hart’s claim.
What is the procedure? The Committee will set up a task force to oversee an investigation or recount. After the Committee completes its examination of the election, they will issue a report to the full House in a resolution with recommendations. The House then adopts or rejects this resolution by a majority vote. The precedents of the House state that the resolution can:
• dismiss the challenge
• declare which candidate is entitled to the seat
• assert that no one should be seated pending the completion of an investigation
• call for a new election to be held
• refute the challenger as not qualified to contest the election
• provide reimbursement for the contestants from the House’s contingency fund for costs incurred in the contested election process.
Every election cycle has its closest race and has its upset wins, but this process of involving the Federal Contested Elections Act is rare. In the few instances, it has been, the results have been contentious.
In 1996, California Republican Bob Dornan was challenged by Democratic candidate Loretta Sanchez. On election night, Sanchez won by 984 votes and was certified by the California Board of Elections. Dornan then contested the election, alleging that many votes were cast fraudulently by illegal immigrants. Sanchez was seated provisionally, and a 16-month congressional investigation ensued, finding some evidence that 624 votes were cast illegally. California officials also threw out an additional 124 flawed absentee votes. Ultimately, Sanchez was declared the winner (by an albeit) smaller margin.
In 1984, Indiana Democratic Incumbent Frank McCloskey faced Republican Richard McIntyre. McIntyre led on election night and, after a recount, was certified the winner by the Indiana Secretary of State, winning by 34 votes. McCloskey contested the results and brought his case to the House of Representatives. The House Majority (Democratic) refused to seat the Republican. After conducting a recount, the House determined that McCloskey won by four votes. When the House Democrats voted to seat McCloskey, Republicans walked out of the chamber in protest.
Earlier this month, the Democrats took the unusual step of voting to strip a member of the minority party of their committee assignments, removing Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene of her posts. Do the Democrats want to escalate things and now vote to remove a sitting member of the House of Representatives in such partisan and contentious times?
I hope that the committee votes to dismiss Ms. Hart’s suit. We need to put the 2020 election cycle behind us. Like many politicians who have lost a previous race, she can run again in the next election. But if she (and the House Democrats) move forward and ultimately seat her, she will not be deemed a legitimate Congressperson. If Congress overturns these election results, people will lose even more faith in our government, which many already believe is rigged.