Rita Hart Urges House Committee to Apply Iowa Law so All Legal Votes Are Counted in IA-02 Race
Miller-Meeks continues push to disenfranchise at least 22 Iowa voters, Refuses to engage in legal process
WHEATLAND, IOWA — Today, [Monday] in the latest briefing filed with the House Committee on Administration, Rita Hart again made her case that all votes in IA-02 election must be counted, noting that the Committee’s approach to this contested election case is consistent with its authority under Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution and House contest precedent.
Hart filed a Notice of Contest with the U.S. House of Representatives after an initial state recount process left thousands of ballots in question, and specifically disenfranchised at least 22 voters in Iowa’s Second Congressional District. Federal law provides that this contest is the proper avenue for Congress to fulfill its constitutional duty and the Committee overseeing the contest decided to move forward with a review of the IA-02 contest on its merits. In fact, Republicans — including Kevin McCarthy — have in the past supported this ordinary, legal process. However, as these Iowans wait for their votes to be counted, Miller-Meeks continues to make substantively flawed arguments that will leave Iowan voters silenced.
“Contestee Miller-Meeks’s adamant opposition to Contestant Hart’s efforts to count these lawful ballots is alarming, but not surprising,” wrote Hart’s attorney Marc Elias, in the briefing. “Her obstruction is consistent with her party’s outright hostility to fundamental democratic norms, from the baseless attempts of its standard-bearer and his allies to throw out hundreds of thousands of lawful votes and overturn the will of the people last November, to its refusal to uniformly condemn the assault on our democracy that unfolded on January 6, to its unanimous opposition to the For the People Act and other legislative efforts to safeguard the vote, to its open hostility to this attempt to prevent the disenfranchisement of 22 Iowans. The position of Contestee Miller-Meeks and the Republican Party is now clear: the right to vote is worthy of neither respect nor protection.”
**To read the full response click here. To read the full Notice of Contest and other documents filed with the Clerk of the House in this contest click here.
The story today—and always—is the story of American democracy.
Tonight, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed a 95-page law designed to suppress the vote in the state where voters chose two Democratic senators in 2020, making it possible for Democrats to enact their agenda. Among other things, the new law strips power from the Republican secretary of state who stood up to Trump’s demand that he change the 2020 voting results. The law also makes it a crime to give water or food to people waiting in line to vote.
The Georgia law is eye-popping, but it is only one of more than 250 measures in 43 states designed to keep Republicans in power no matter what voters want.
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The For the People Act, passed by the House of Representatives, is now going to the Senate. There, Republicans will try to kill it with the filibuster, which enables an entrenched minority to stop popular legislation by threatening to hold the floor talking so that the Senate cannot vote. If Republicans block this measure, the extraordinary state laws designed to guarantee that Democrats can never win another election will stay in effect, and America as a whole will look much like the Jim Crow South, with democracy replaced by a one-party state.
Remember when Ben Franklin answered the question on what type of government e had and he said “A Republic – if you can keep it.” Well, this is the point in history when it is being stolen right in front of us.
President Biden held his long demanded first press conference. What major topic did the press fail to ask even a single question on despite it continuing to be the dominant news story?
Biden also went into detail on what multi trillion dollar proposal that would surpass the recent American Relief Plan for cost?
Kim Janey made headlines last week as the first black female to head what major US city?
Corona virus vaccinations will be available for all Iowans beginning on what date?
Vice-President Harris has been put in charge of trying to straighten what continuing headache left by the previous administration?
It is still Women’s History Month. One of the most overlooked leaders of the suffrage movement, what woman wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923?
40 years ago Tuesday – March 30, 1981 – John Hinckley Jr. got his 15 minutes of fame when he did what?
What drug maker kind of booted the presentation of their new corona virus vaccine to America’s National Institute of Health?
“It’s sick and un-American. It makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.” What was President Biden referring to when he spoke those words at his press conference?
“When I’m sometimes asked ‘When will there be enough (women on the Supreme Court)?’ and my answer is: ‘When there are nine.’ Thus said what SCOTUS justice?
Another mass murder in the US, this time in Boulder, Colorado at what business?
The murder of two prison guards in Anamosa has shed light on AFSCME’s continuing request for what?
Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith defended the rollback on what common voting practice claiming it was against the Ten Commandments?
New York republican representative Tom Reed, expected major opponent to challenge NY Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo has resigned congress and said he will not run against Cuomo for what reason?
In a poll by Pew Research, what percent of white Americans said there was “a Lot” or “Some” discrimination against white people?
Virginia became the first former Confederate state to eliminate what form of punishment last week?
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued long term goals for the department that included longer delivery times, shorter office hours and what third pillar of failure?
Sally Ride! Her name was so fitting for what her role in life was. Sally Ride was America’s first what?
Which country held its 4th election in 2 years last Tuesday?
The founder of BioNTech (Ozlem Tureci) said three weeks ago that the mRNA technology could soon be used on what other major scourge of human health?
The only way we will solve the problem of gun violence is by solving the problem of mental illness in Republican Senators. – Andy Borowitz
Answers:
The pandemic
His infrastructure ‘build back better’ plans. Our infrastructure is in bad shape.
Boston – She succeeded new Labor Secretary Marty Walsh
April 5th
Why Latin Americans are leaving their countries
Alice Paul
Shot and nearly killed President Reagan
Astra Zeneca
The 250+ voter restriction bills in 43 state legislatures
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
King Soopers supermarket
More guards in Iowa’s prison system
Early voting on Sunday. Maybe someone could tell her that the Ten Commandments are not part of our laws?
If there seems to be one constant on this country in recent years it is the outbursts of gun violence that is totally senseless. What is just as senseless is Republican politicians who refuse to take any of a number of common sense, simple approaches that could greatly decrease the senseless deaths caused by gun violence not every year in America, but every day.
Every day in this country an average of 100 people die of gun violence. For each of these persons who die there are survivors who will be traumatized to some degree for the rest of their lives. Some will be greatly scarred. Even the family of the perpetrator will be traumatized for the rest of their lives.
Think if you were shot dead tomorrow, how would the people you left behind react. What about Grandma and Grandpa if they are still living? News of your sudden death might kill them in their old age. What about your parents and your in-laws? Here again it may cause health problems among them. There would possibly be much grieving and a loss of belief in most anything.
What about your spouse? Besides being traumatized, your spouse will now have to figure how to live with a huge loss of income to the family. You are very fortunate if you have some form of life insurance, most folks don’t. Even if you do have life insurance will it replace your income?
What about children? Your senseless death will haunt them for years. Will their plans and goals need to change drastically when they have lost a parent? Will they become withdrawn and sullen?
And then there are extended family such as brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces. There are also friends and social networks that you exist in. Most folks are involved in some form of volunteer work including church work to little league to political action or book clubs. Everywhere there will be a hole that will never quite be filled.
That previous exercise is to show just what repercussions one unexpected, senseless death has. Multiply that by 100 a day for 365 days and you have an idea of the scope of the situation.
And yet The Republican Party for at least the last 40 years has stood in the way of even the simplest, most sensible fixes that could easily be implemented. While they give all sorts excuses the bottom line is that guns are a huge business in this country and for a Republican dollars are much more sacred than lives.
For many years Republican politicians have papered over the grief and loss that families and friends are faced with by making some really useless public statement that usually includes a phrase such as “Thoughts and Prayers.” Thoughts and prayers are little more than empty air. They do nothing.
What Americans need are solid laws that restrict who can get guns, what kind of guns can be bought, how quickly can they be delivered and ways to engineer in safety features. There should also be some form of insurance or funding for victims of shootings.
We have had laws in the past specifying that folks with felonies can’t buy or own a gun. That was accomplished with background checks. Even in these computerized times, background checks should take a few days. Thus, the delivery of the gun should take a few days. If someone is in a huge hurry to get a gun, that is probably an indication that the intention of owning a gun is not a good one.
The next question is why do we sell weapons of war (AR15s and their ilk) to the average American who is supposedly living in a civil society? There should be no reason that any civilian should own an AR15.
Industry and engineers have always looked to ways to make their products safer, less likely to kill or maim. The great example of that is the automobile. When safety became a top goal in the 70s and 80s it was amazing how cars have been redesigned in such a way that even in some of the worst crashes people are able to survive. Seat belts, collapsable steering wheels and air bags are a few of the changes that have been incorporated.
As has been suggested many times, why do guns not have a fingerprint scanner or an eyeball scanner to validate that the person shooting the gun has been authorized for that gun? To be authorized a person will need to have a background check. There are many variations on this theme.
What about insurance to cover a victim’s losses? Or a victim’s fund that is funded with a large tax on gun purchases.
One suggestion that comes up all the time is to tax the bullets. If each bullet actually cost $10 someone would think a while before shooting.
Here is one suggestion that melds voter suppression with gun laws:
Radio broadcaster and best selling author Thom Hartmann treated the country to this rant Thursday morning. Hartmann takes on the insanity and incongruity of what passes for Republican “thinking” these days. Like many who read here, I can not understand why anyone would vote for a Republican when their policies are incoherent with the great chance you may get caught up in them some day – like Iowa’s farmers have:
Thom Hartmann
Dear Republican voter:
When Ted Nugent, the NRA and the GOP told you that more guns would make America a less violent society, what did you expect? Did you really think that suddenly every American would become a fast-draw marksman and vigilante justice would take us back to some happy Wild West movie fantasy?
When Trump said Covid was “just like the flu” at the same time he was telling Bob Woodward it was a killer, what did you expect? When he pushed refusing to wear a mask as if it were some sort of declaration of masculinity, and openly encouraged states and cities to remain open to produce “herd…er…thinking” did you really believe that would keep a half-million Americans from dying?
When Trump sent thousands of modern-day brownshirts to storm the US Capitol and try to kill Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi so Trump could become the nation’s strongman dictator, what did you expect? Did you believe that American democracy was outdated, and our country would run better if a billionaire oligarch and his cronies just took everything over regardless of the will of the voters?
When five Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court, in 2010 in Citizens United, ruled that billionaires and big corporations secretly bribing politicians was just “First Amendment-protected Free Speech,” what did you expect? Did you believe that was going to work out well for democracy in America? That it had, in any country, ever?
When Republican lobbyist Grover Norquist, along with Reagan, both Bush’s and Trump warned you about the dangers of “big government” and said it should be shrunk down small enough to be “drowned in the bathtub,” what did you expect? Did you really think that gutting environmental and banking protections; letting corporations dump more pollution into our air and water, poisoning our children; and restricting access to Medicaid, unemployment benefits and disability assistance was going to improve this country?
When Donald Trump (and Reagan & both Bush’s) told you that if America just showered trillions in tax cuts and and subsidies on our largest corporations and richest people that it would all “trickle down” to the rest of us, what did you expect? Did you really think those billionaires were going to happily pass their tax cuts along to you as a pay raise?
When Republican governors across the country told you that only private, for-profit electric companies could provide you with cheap, reliable electricity and that state or municipal utilities with no profit motive were a bad idea, what did you expect? Did you think Enron ripping people off & PG&E burning down part of California was an anomaly? That what just happened with the privatized Texas power grid when it was faced — again — with a winter storm was just a fluke?
When Ronald Reagan — and every Republican politician since him — told you that destroying labor unions would be a good thing and would help American workers, what did you expect? Did you really think that no longer having solidarity and representation against organized capital would lift up American workers and cause CEO’s to keep their own pay reasonable?
When George HW Bush told you the nation needed to double down on Nixon’s “War on Drugs” and put more people in prison, particularly Black people who were “selling crack cocaine in the park across the street from the White House” (a sale Bush set up), what did you expect? Did you really think that putting millions of Black people in prison for decades like Bush pitched with his “Willie Horton” ad campaign was somehow going to make America a better place to live?
When Donald Trump tried tocut off food stamps to over a million people in the middle of a pandemic, what did you expect? Did you really think it was going to “force“ people to get a job in the face of a disease that could kill them? When over 10 million jobs had just vanished from the economy?
When former oil industry CEOs George W. Bush and Dick Cheney told you that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, coincidentally sitting on the world’s second-largest oil reserve, was plotting to attack America, even as the United Nations and our own American weapons inspectors were saying it was a lie, what did you expect? Did you really think America could conquer a country, sell off its natural resources, and its people would just happily go along with it? How’d that work out in Vietnam?
When Wall Street Billionaire Pete Peterson and his friends in the GOP put up their “debt clock” and told you that Social Security was a Ponzi scheme that was going to go bankrupt and therefore should be handed over to the big Wall Street banks, what did you expect? Did you think the bankers and the Republicans they own were actually going to help build a stronger social safety net for average Americans?
When Reagan’s Interior Secretary, James Watt, told you that it was just fine to sell off federal lands for pennies on the dollar to giant mining and drilling companies because Jesus was soon going to return and “make all things new,” what did you expect? For that matter, when Trump’s Interior Secretary, a coal industry lobbyist, said the same thing without the religion, did you really expect it would help our public lands? Did you think it had nothing to do with massive campaign contributions to the GOP?
When Republicans changed course in 1980 and threw in with antiabortion activists, but promised only “reasonable” restrictions, what did you expect? How about Arkansas that just passed a law last month to put a child who’s impregnated by a rapist in prison if she tries to get an abortion? Or Texas, where legislators are trying to get the death penalty for young victims of incest who get an abortion?
When Donald Trump encouraged violence at his rallies, promoted racist slogans and policies, promised to pay the legal bills of people who became violent, and openly celebrated police “roughing up” the people they’re supposed to protect and serve, what did you expect? Did you think it would restrain the authoritarianism and racism of his followers and police? Really?
When Trump and Fox News tried to characterize as “thugs” the millions of people in our streets protesting the murder of George Floyd and so many other unarmed Black men, what did you expect? Did you think the cops would stop racist and violent policing without any sort of public pressure or accountability? When has that ever happened?
When oil company shills were all over the media telling us that global warming is a hoax and that carbon dioxide was good for trees and so we should have more of it, and Republican politicians for 40 years echoed them (and continue to), what did you expect? Did you really believe that burning all those fossil fuels and throwing all those poisons in the air would have no consequence?
When, during the last three presidential primaries, Republican candidates like Ron Paul argued that the best way to provide healthcare for Americans was to eliminate all government programs so that people would be forced to “stand on their own two feet“ and figure out their own healthcare solutions, what did you expect? Did you really buy Congressman Paul’s argument that in his day doctors like him were paid with chickens and we should think of that as an inspiration for our healthcare system today?
When Republicans told you they’re the Party of Jesus, but completely ignored Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 and the Sermon on the Mount that we should heal the sick, feed the hungry, house the homeless, and defend those in prison, what did you expect? Do you really think Jesus is down with pushing assault weapons and tax-cuts for billionaires?
When you voted for Republicans while Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was actively gutting our public schools, promoting for-profit corporate schools, and making a joke out of any kind of solution to our student debt crisis, what did you expect? Did you actually believe that she and the GOP had any interest in building up our public schools and helping our teachers?
When your Republican state representatives told you they were passing legislation to “ensure election integrity,” what did you expect? Did you really believe they were going to make sure everybody in America who is legally eligible to vote could have their vote counted? Did you assume they’d never end up blocking you from the voting rolls?
Seriously, did you expect Republicans were somehow going to do away with the 10-hour lines in neighborhoods where lots of registered Democrats live but everything would be fine for you? Did you believe them when they said voting by mail was a dangerous and insecure system, after states like Oregon and most of Western Europe have been doing it for more than 20 years without any problems whatsoever?
The simple fact is that Republicans have been lying to voters like you for better than 40 years, from Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” and “War on Drugs,” through Reagan’s “Supply Side Economics,” right up to today’s Trump/GOP line that the 2020 election was filled with “voter fraud.”
They’re all lies, to disguise the fact that the GOP worships money and power alone, and puts those two things above the safety and security of average Americans every time.
For the past 18 years on my radio show I’ve been running a contest. To win, all you need to do is name a single piece of post-1980 legislation that was first written by a Republican, majority-sponsored by Republicans in Congress, passed by a majority of Republicans and signed by a Republican president — and has as its main beneficiaries average working people, instead of rich people or big corporations.
Nobody has ever won the prize, which is your choice of any of my books, with a personalized inscription.
Our country needs us all to be awake to what Republicans are up to in our federal and state capitols as they try to savage democracy and turn our country over to the oligarchs who pay their bills.
The 2020 election seems to show that Republican voters are figuring out the scam that GOP politicians have been running on them for two generations, which is why the Party is scrambling to make it harder to vote.
If you’re a good-faith former Republican voter who was taken in by these lies but has now seen the light, the Democratic Party is more than happy to welcome you back to sanity. A new day is coming.
[BFIA Editor’s note: Update from @sarahferris, congressional reporter for Politico: Pelosi says House Admin Committee will decide *Monday* if the Democrat’s challenge “meets certain criteria to go forward”]
IA-02 Recount update from Rita Hart for Congress:
“Hart’s case is built on 22 uncounted ballots. She claims that those ballots were legally cast and unlawfully excluded from the state’s certified results in the district… In aggregate, these ballots would put Hart ahead if they were counted.”
As at least 22 Iowans who legally cast their ballots wait to have their votes counted in the race for Iowa’s Second Congressional District, Zachary Oren-Smith of the Iowa City Press-Citizen gives an in-depth profile of the contest of the contest and evidence presented by Rita Hart to include these 22 ballots in the final tally.
IOWA CITY, IOWA — After a districtwide recount showed her winning by six votes, Congress provisionally seated Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks pending a challenge from Democrat Rita Hart.
Here’s a look at what you need to know as her challenge moves forward…
Iowa Code delegates the administration of recounts to ad hoc county recount commissions consisting of two members appointed by both campaigns and a third member who the campaigns mutually agreed upon. Across the 24 counties, processes varied widely. Jefferson County did a full-hand recount, while Marion did a recount by machine. Others, like Johnson County, chose a method making use of both highspeed vote-counting machines and hand count procedures…
The U.S. Committee on House Administration voted to table a motion to dismiss Hart’s challenge and instead chose to move forward with a fact-finding process. Both campaigns have submitted answers to the committee’s questions, and they have until March 29 to submit replies. The committee has not outlined a timeline or structure for how it intends to proceed…
The Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969 gives candidates for the U.S. House a process for appealing their losses. It points these challenges at the Committee on House Administration…
Hart’s case is built on 22 uncounted ballots. She claims that those ballots were legally cast and unlawfully excluded from the state’s certified results in the district.
The 22 ballots come from five different counties and differ widely in terms of the circumstances that allegedly led them to be kept out of the count. In two cases, Hart’s petition alleges voters dropped ballots off with election officials who set them aside without counting them. In another, she says an absentee ballot was rejected because the signature was on the wrong part of the envelope. In aggregate, these ballots would put Hart ahead if they were counted.
Hart is also asking Congress to conduct a new recount, this time by hand. Only Jefferson County did a hand recount in November. All other counties used high-speed vote tabulators to some extent. The campaign cites Maxwell Palmer, a professor of political and computer science at Boston University, who estimated that counting machine errors could account for as many as 38 validly cast ballots for either candidate…
Many candidates who’ve lost elections — particularly close ones — have appealed to Congress…
If the committee determines that Hart provides enough evidence, it could call for another election or decide to investigate the original election. This could involve consideration of a segment of ballots or a full hand recount.
At the end of its investigation, Hart’s contest could be dismissed or the committee could draft a resolution entitling her to the seat…
There were fewer than 10 days between the completion of the November 2020 recount of IA-02 and Iowa Code’s deadline for an election contest court to make a ruling on who is entitled to the seat. In December, Hart argued this was not enough time to seek the hand recount they’d asked for. November’s recount took several weeks.
It was for this reason, she said, the state’s option for an appeal wasn’t sufficient. An appeal Federal Contested Elections Act offered an extended timeline, she said.
Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution gives the U.S. House authority to judge elections, returns and qualifications for its own membership. This supersedes even the states these members would represent.
While polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support background checks and banning assault weapons, the popular will to demand these common sense regulations seems largely absent.
Relying on historical precedent, Thom Hartmann makes the case that change has happened in our country when Americans were shown pictures or film of the results of the violence. This could be what we have to do now regarding gun violence and mass shootings.
“Have you ever seen a picture of a pile of bodies that have been ripped apart, their heads exploded by 223 caliber bullets the things that are fired out of an AR-556? I mean there’s a reason why this guy shot ten people and they are all dead. No survivors. No wounded. These are weapons of war. Have you seen the pictures? No. Of course not. Because the American media doesn’t show those kinds of pictures.”
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“They are after infertility treatments. They are after birth control. They have been after not allowing a woman to make her own choices about reproduction.” – Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell
Rita Hart Urges All Legal Votes to be Counted in IA-02 Race, Asks for Fair Process to Count All Legal Votes In Response to Committee Questions
Hart renews call for at least 22 wrongfully excluded voters to have their voices heard
WHEATLAND, IOWA — Today, [Monday] following The House Committee on Administration’s decision to move forward and review the IA-02 contest on its merits, Rita Hart submitted a response to committee questions outlining a fair and transparent process that will expeditiously ensure all lawful ballots are counted. Hart filed a Notice of Contest with the U.S. House of Representatives after an initial state recount process left thousands of ballots in question, and specifically disenfranchised 22 voters in Iowa’s Second Congressional District. Federal law provides that this contest is the proper avenue for Congress to fulfill its duty and ensure that all Iowa voters have their voices heard and guarantee fulfillment of each voter’s constitutional right to have their legal ballots counted.
“As I have said from the beginning of this entire process, nothing is more important than ensuring every Iowan has their vote counted,” said IA-02 candidate Rita Hart. “Everyone, including Mariannette Miller-Meeks, has acknowledged that there are uncounted votes left and we cannot allow twenty-two Iowans to be disenfranchised due to administrative errors. It is crucial to me to make sure that this review by the U.S. House is fair, transparent, and follows the facts. Iowans deserve to know that the candidate who earned the most votes is seated.”
In the Notice of Contest, Hart details 22 legally cast ballots that were unlawfully excluded from the state-certified results in Iowa’s Second Congressional District. These ballots, which when added to the count prove Rita won this race, include:
2 curbside ballots cast by voters living with a disability in Scott County who legally-cast their ballots under Iowa law, are permitted to vote from their vehicles and have their votes counted. Both of these were votes for Hart.
9 absentee ballots cast by voters in Marion County who legally-cast their ballots but inexplicably had them not counted in the initial canvass and therefore the ballots were not permitted to be counted in the recount. 5 of these votes were for Hart, 3 for Miller-Meeks, and 1 was an undervote for neither candidate.
1 provisional ballot cast by a voter in Johnson County that was legally-cast and for which the voter provided the requisite proof of residency and identity by the November 9 deadline, but was uncounted due to election worker error. This was a vote for Hart.
1 absentee ballot cast by a voter in Johnson County, which was unlawfully rejected by election workers due to the location of a signature on an affidavit envelope. This was a vote for Hart.
2 absentee ballots cast by voters in Johnson County who received pre-sealed ballot envelopes and therefore had to unseal the envelopes to place their ballots inside before securely sealing them. These votes were unlawfully rejected. These were votes for Hart.
5 absentee ballots cast by voters in Johnson and Scott Counties who have sworn under oath that they sealed their return envelopes but election workers rejected the ballots for not being “properly sealed”. These were votes for Hart.
2 absentee ballots cast by voters in Des Moines and Wapello Counties who, despite placing their ballots in drop boxes by the deadline had their ballots rejected because the drop boxes were in Linn County. These were votes for Hart.
**To read the full response to committee questions click here. To read the full Notice of Contest click here.
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
Rita Hart Urges House Committee to Apply Iowa Law so All Legal Votes Are Counted in IA-02 Race
While polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support background checks and banning assault weapons, the popular will to demand these common sense regulations seems largely absent.
Blog For Iowa 