DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has sent a letter to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, asking her to recognize Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks as the the winner of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
Miller-Meeks won the tight race by six votes, but Democrat Rita Hart is contesting the state-certified results in the U.S. House.
Hart's campaign said it found 22 votes that should have been counted during a recount of the tight race, and claims she would have defeated Miller-Meeks had those votes been counted.
Hart then bypassed a legal process in Iowa and challenged the election results directly to the U.S. House, saying the process in the state would take too long.
Attorneys for Miller-Meeks subsequently asked the House to dismiss Hart's challenge. But the House committee looking into the issue voted to delay its decision on that proposal, and has been investigating since
In his letter, Pate says Iowa's process is either bipartisan or non-partisan, and that the state should have the final say in its elections, not Washington, D.C.
Pelosi says the committee's investigation is following established law.
But there's been pushback from some Democrats who think it would be an overreach to award the seat to Hart.
The investigation is also drawing attention from other media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and The Hill.
In addition, nine of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump after the riots at the Capitol have also sent a letter to Pelosi asking her to call off the investigation.
Their letter says the investigation of the race serves to give cover to false claims by Trump and other Republicans of widespread voter fraud.