It's being called one of the closest elections in history. Republican House candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks now holds a 34-vote lead over her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart. The GOP candidate pulled ahead ever so slightly after an audit uncovered an "error" favoring her Democratic opponent. Imagine that.
The current vote count now stands at 196,779 for Miller-Meeks and 196,745 for Hart, after an "error" was corrected for which left out votes from one precinct in Lucas County. Previous counts showed Miller-Meeks trailing her Democratic opponent by around 150 votes, according to Iowa's News Now.
(Via Iowa's News Now)
The Iowa Secretary of State website shows Mariannette Miller-Meeks now holding a 34-vote lead over Rita Hart.
Auditor Julie Masters said the error has been corrected, and the new totals have been added to the statewide unofficial results.
But Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says results in the "Russell" precinct will be audited with a hand recount on Thursday.
A county-wide machine recount will happen the same day.
Masters says the problem was a human error and not a machine issue.
According to Fox News, Iowa law requires each county to conduct an audit and canvassing by Tuesday of next week. The county's board of supervisors must then certify the results before submitting them to the secretary of state.
If the current totals stand, the election will certainly be one of the closest in American history. A Miller-Meeks win will also be historical in another way. The Republican lawmaker will join the record number of GOP women elected to Congress after Republicans ate into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Democratic majority.
