Senator Charles Grassley affirms that U.S. House Democratic candidate Rita Hart has the legal right to contest the general election results for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race, but he disagrees with Hart’s method to bring the issue to the House of Representatives.

Hart announced this week that she plans to file a notice of contest with the U.S. House against Republican candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Hart’s campaign states that there are 22 ballots she believes were unlawfully excluded from the certified election results. The congressional race was close, as a final recount on November 30th resulted in Miller-Meeks winning by six votes. Sen. Grassley tells KCII that under the Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969, Hart can file the contest, “If Hart is declared the winner by 222 Democrats in the House of Representatives to 212 Republicans, then you can see that 222 Democrats, for political reasons, are overruling 400,000 voters in Iowa. So to me it’s wrong, she’s asking a group of partisans in Washington to toss out the will of Iowa voters.”

Iowa’s recount of the race counted Miller-Meeks with 196,964 votes and Hart with 196,958 votes. For the Democratic-controlled House, leaders will have to decide when the 117th Congress begins on January 3rd whether to seat Miller-Meeks for the time being or leave the seat open while they investigate.