I am adding my voice to the need for the district-wide recount of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. This recount is essential not just for Rita Hart, not just for Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, but for each person in Iowa. This recount is about our basic right to have our vote counted in every election in which we participate.
As a teacher, I stressed to my students the importance of voting as the building block of our democracy and how each person’s vote counts. We won’t always get the result we voted for, but we do get the ability to exercise our right to vote in order to engage in our individual responsibility in the U.S. democratic process.
The Iowa laws used to settle election disputes left no time to bring the fact to light that 22 votes out of over 400,000 votes cast in the November 2020 election were not counted or reviewed in the state’s rushed recount. Present Iowa laws were and are not sufficient to settle election disputes and this is why the House Administration Committee, under the Constitution and the Federal Contested Elections Act, have the obligation to resolve errors in the election of its members.
Rita Hart has made her goal clear this entire time — she wants to get this right. She wants to make sure every vote is counted. If Mariannette Miller-Meeks wants to preserve her credibility should she maintain her seat in Congress, she must join Rita Hart in this recount effort.