Democrats, who have shared their collected outrage for more than a month at President Donald Trump’s questioning the 2020 election, now intend to challenge the results of two close House races in Iowa and New York, according to a report.
The precedent has been set to allow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to intervene on behalf of her party, which could mean two Republicans might not join the 117th Congress, despite what the final vote count says.
Election officials in Iowa have certified GOP House candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks as the winner of the state’s 2nd congressional district, The Des Moines Register reported.
After a recount, the Republican won the race against Democratic Rita Hart by six votes out of roughly 394,000 ballots cast.
Likewise, in New York’s 22nd congressional district, a Republican is leading by a razor-thin margin.
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GOP challenger Claudia Tenney is lead incumbent Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi by only 12 votes last week, according to The Post-Standard in Syracuse.
To cloud things up even more, just days ago 55 uncounted ballots were found.
The ballots aren’t being counted for now, but it’s a mess in the Upstate New York race, which is the only House race yet to be called.
According to Politico, Democrats are shelving their outrage at contesting election results, and they intend to enlist any number of methods to pull a victory from one or both races.
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That includes using attorney Marc Elias to intervene on their behalf.
“Brindisi and Hart have both retained counsel from Perkins Coie, the premier Democratic election law firm — a sign they are gearing up for a lengthy legal process. The head of Perkins Cole’s election law practice, Marc Elias, is a recount expert who successfully led Democrat Al Franken’s efforts in Minnesota’s 2008 Senate race,” Politco reported.
Franken won that race and the rest is history.
Elias, of course, helped Democrats push massive mail-in ballots this year, and quite successfully.
In May, Bloomberg published a story about Elias which perhaps best summarized the attorney’s role with regard to expanding vote-by-mail.
“Five months before Election Day, the battle for the White House is already being fought in the courts–around the contentious issue of voting by mail.”
“Marc Elias, the man President Donald Trump has called the Democrats’ ‘best Election stealing lawyer,’ is spearheading lawsuits in 13 states seeking to overturn constraints on voting by mail, with early signs of success,” Bloomberg noted.
Elias was also partially behind the questionably-obtained and debunked dossier which saw Trump’s term marred with contrived controversy.
The Washington Post previously reported that Elias, with funding from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was involved in initiating what would ultimately become former British intelligence official Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier on Trump and Russia.
“Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research,” the Post reported.
Now, Elias is again going to bat for Democrats, who don’t want to see their House lead shrink ant further than it already has.
And Pelosi also might have an ace her sleeve to help stop the hemorrhaging, no matter how successful Elias is, or how New York’s expected 22nd district recount goes.
Democrats want Pelosi to help them throw out the win of Miller-Meeks, for now, and potentially Tenney down the road, and an obscure House act not used since 1985 could help them do just that, as Politico noted.
“The House could refuse to seat Miller-Meeks and create a committee to review the matter. If Hart files a contest under the Federal Contested Election Act, then the House Administration Committee will claim jurisdiction,” Politico reported.
Pelosi would not be making history by using the House to decide the Iowa race or the possibly the one in New York.
Democrats with a House majority35 years ago, used the the Federal Contested Election Act after a close race in Indiana following an apparent win by a GOP challenger in Iowa, according to Politico.
“The photo finishes in Iowa and New York mirror the contentious partisan battle after the 1984 election, when the Democratic-controlled House refused to seat the Republican challenger of incumbent Rep. Frank McCloskey (D-Ind.). Indiana’s secretary of state certified Republican Richard McIntyre as the winner after a partial recount, but after an objection under the Federal Contested Elections Act, McIntyre was not seated in the House,” the outlet noted.
Congress’s General Accounting Office found the Democrat the winner of the race in a recount of its own.
McCloskey went on to serve in the House until 1995.
Miller-Meeks, Tenney or both could become this election cycle’s McIntyre.
In 2020, where the presidential election is still contested by President Trump, and we’re told by Democrats that contesting elections is harmful to the democratic process, the party now seems willing to use every avenue necessary to ensure a favorable outcome.
Refusing to accept election results apparently only subverts the will of the voter when a Republican refuses to lie down.
Democrats apparently don’t intend to let two seats in the House slip away, and they have on their side a bulldog attorney with links to Fusion GPS who helped them flood vote-counting machines with millions of mail-in ballots.
They’ve also got Pelosi and congressional precedent on their side.
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