Letter: Every legal vote must be counted

The election in the Second Congressional District of Iowa is one of the closest in the last 100 years. Nearly 400,000 votes were cast, and the margin currently stands at a mere 6 votes.

Now we learned just last week that 22 Iowans did not have their votes counted. These are the votes of citizens of Iowa who followed every rule and voted according to the law. Both candidates in this race have agreed that there are legitimate votes that have not yet been counted.

One of the core principles of our democracy is that every legal vote must be counted to ensure that the public is fairly represented in Congress. We have to get this right.

Fortunately, there is a legal process available to allow additional scrutiny to the votes that were cast in this election. Candidate Rita Hart has asked forthis process to be conducted, and Hart’s request is obviously justified. An election that is this close, one of the closest Congressional elections in history, is precisely the type of situation for which this legal process was created.

We will certainly be subjected to a flood of rhetoric in opposition to having this process move forward. But we all know that either side would be advocating for this review if the situations were reversed. Iowans know what fairness lookslike. It’s only fair to conduct a full and thorough review of every vote. Let’s make sure we get this right, let’s count every legal vote.

The election in the Second Congressional District of Iowa is one of the closest in the last 100 years. Nearly 400,000 votes were cast, and the margin currently stands at a mere six votes.

Dien Judge

Albia