The very speedy timing of congressional election contests in Iowa
Last month I highlighted the path forward in Iowa’s Second Congressional District race. After the unofficial Election Day tally ended at a 47-vote margin for Mariannette Miller-Meeks over Rita Hart, Ms. Hart requested a recount. The recount narrowed the margin to just six votes, a margin that the state will likely ratify today. Ms. Hart may well file an election contest.
While one might be inclined to think that such disputes could languish for months, as the 2008 Coleman-Franken Senate contest in Minnesota lasted for several months deep into 2009, that’s not the case under Iowa law. An election contest will wrap up by December 8.
The contest court is created under Iowa Code § 60.1:
The court for the trial of contested elections for presidential electors or for the office of senator or representative in Congress shall consist of the chief justice of the supreme court, who shall be presiding judge of the court, and four judges of the district court to be selected by the supreme court, two of whom, with the chief justice, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of the business of the court.
The rules are open-ended, and the timing is very fast under § 60.5:
The clerk of the court shall, immediately after the filing of the statement, notify the judges herein named, and fix a day for the organization of the court within two days thereafter, and also notify the parties to the contest. The judges shall meet on the day fixed, and organize the court, and make and announce such rules for the trial of the case as they shall think necessary for the protection of the rights of each party and a just and speedy trial of the case, and commence the trial of the case as early as practicable thereafter, and so arrange for and conduct the trial that a final determination of the same and judgment shall be rendered at least six days before the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following.
Note that the rules are “as they shall think necessary for the protection of the rights of each party and a just and speedy trial of the case.” Flexible, to be sure.
But why so fast? Why does the Code urge resolution by December 8 when the complaint in the contest could only be filed after state certification, November 30?
Well, in presidential election disputes, the “safe harbor” under 3 U.S.C. § 5 is six days before “the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following,” the date set by Congress for presidential electors to meet and vote.
Iowa Code links presidential election contests with other federal office contests. But the timeline is the same.
Before 1970, Iowa didn’t even have a congressional election contest procedure. Contests after a recount would be left to Congress. But in 1970, the state legislature added a provision to the code to allow for congressional election contests in the same fashion as presidential election contests. (Now-Senator Chuck Grassley was among those voting for this bill in the Iowa legislature!)
And in Iowa, “[t]he right to contest an election is only conferred by statute,” as the late Chief Justice Mark Cady once wrote, such that “contestants must strictly comply,” and “contestants are limited to the scheme provided by the legislature.”
While one might think that presidential election contests ought to operate differently from congressional election contests, it’s up to a state to decide how contests should proceed. And Deschler’s Precedents require exhaustion of state legal remedies before raising a challenge in the House of Representatives.
Then again, maybe there are good reasons to link the timing. It requires expeditious solutions to ensure that Iowa’s congressional delegation is fully represented (unlike Minnesota’s extensive vacancy). It guarantees members of Congress will have certification to present when the new Congress is seated January 3, even if there might be an election contest. And those members of Congress get to participate in the counting of electoral votes January 6, too.
Under the contest timing that the Iowa legislature has expressly provided, the contest period is very speedy—and in the event a contest is filed, the court must give a resolution by December 8.