Democrat Rita Hart is officially asking the U.S. House to investigate and overturn the race that State of Iowa certification shows she lost by six votes, arguing that 22 ballots were wrongly excluded and others weren’t examined during the recount. The campaign provided the notice of contest to The Associated Press and announced its filing Tuesday morning. In the document, Hart argues that she would have netted 15 votes and defeated Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks had the 22 ballots been counted in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Hart is asking the Democrat-controlled House to count those votes and conduct a uniform recount throughout the district’s 24 counties. She says she is confident she will be ahead after that process and declared the winner.
Iowans are heading into the holiday with few restrictions on gathering or social activities as Gov. Kim Reynolds places the responsibility on them to gather in small groups to avoid a post-holiday virus surge. With fewer coronavirus tests in the past few days the Monday report for Iowa shows 600 additional virus cases and no additional deaths. The state, however, reported 138 deaths on Sunday after listing none in the prior two days, the result of a new method of reporting deaths that can cause data update delays…but in short, a total of 138 deaths over a four-day period. Iowa has had 3,589 deaths from the virus. On Monday, 644 people were hospitalized.
Waterloo officials remind citizen that if their garbage collection day is normally Thursday, it will be the day before—Wednesday—this week. If your normal garbage day is Friday, it will be the following Monday, December 28. If your recycling day is Friday…it will instead be serviced the next day, Saturday, December 26.
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz isn’t the only person within the Iowa football program who tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Iowa director of athletics Gary Barta said Monday that other staff members and players are also impacted as the Hawkeyes begin preparations for the Dec. 30 game against Missouri in the Nashville Music City Bowl. Barta declined to detail the number of individuals but said they are among the 14 positive tests reported Monday as part of a weekly report released by Iowa athletics which details results of its ongoing testing of student-athletes, coaches and staff members for the novel coronavirus.
