Editor’s Note: This story originally stated Miller-Meeks called for a recount when Hart called for the recount. The story has changed to clarify there are a total of 24 counties in Iowa’s 2nd District. This article was published prior to the certification of the results but has since been updated.  

Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks wins in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race by six votes after the recount, flipping the district from blue to red.

After the vote was certified, the final count was 196,964 to 196,958.

The Iowa state election officials had to amend election results for the District 2 U.S. House race by Nov. 30 in order to certify the general election results statewide and declare an official winner, according to Roxanna Moritz, Scott County auditor.

District 2 is one of four U.S. House races that remain unresolved since the Nov. 3 election. 

District 2 is the second largest district in Iowa with a population of 172,943, including some cities such as Davenport, Bettendorf and Clinton. 

Hart’s campaign said [noun] called for the recounts in all 24 counties in the district and will be paid for by the state due to tight margin separating the candidates.

The three-member recount board arranged by Scott County, appointed by the campaigns, does not examine or evaluate any ballots that have not been already counted, and will not analyze or review canceled, faulty, invalid, disqualified or spoiled ballots, since election officials have already made decisions as to whether to count these ballots.

According to Moritz, instead the board would search for irregularities that may have arisen on Election Day and whether ballots were tabulated by election officials.

With more than 93,000 ballots to review and examine in Scott County, the third largest county in the state, it took a few days to complete a recount in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race. 

Democrat Rita Hart is a lifelong Iowan, farmer and teacher of 20 years. She grew up in Charles City, Iowa, in a “divided household”; her mother a Republican and her father a Democrat. Hart also served as an Iowa State senator for the 49th District from 2013 to 2019. Hart has five children and also received her master’s degree in administrative education from the University of Iowa. 

“With so much at stake in this election and such a slim margin separating the candidates, Iowans deserve to know categorically that their ballots have been accurately counted,” said Zach Meunier, Hart’s campaign manager. 

Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks was born in Herlong, California. Miller-Meeks worked as a doctor and enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18, going from private to lieutenant colonel after serving a total of 24 years. Miller-Meeks graduated from Texas Christian University. 

“I’m running because as a doctor I couldn’t sit on the sidelines as the Affordable Care Act jeopardizes the health care of Iowans,” Miller-Meeks said. “We were promised that premiums would go down and quality and access would go up, but we’re seeing the opposite as the law is being implemented. As a senator, military veteran and doctor, I have spent my entire life fighting to protect Iowa values.”

Hart received roughly 70 percent of the vote in Johnson County. Miller-Meeks outperformed President Donald Trump in the County by about 1,170 more votes, while Hart received about 3,000 fewer votes than President-elect Joe Biden, according to Meunier.