House ruling awaited in District 55 House race

   It’s unclear when Kayla Koether’s fight for the Iowa House District 55 seat will by decided by the Iowa House.

   Koether has filed to have the House resolve the issue, email from her campaign Dec. 21 said.

   “Koether maintains that the election must include all legally cast ballots,” said the release. “In her petition, she asks the Iowa House to open and count every validly cast ballot; re-canvass the House District 55 election so that all validly cast ballots are included and re-certify the HD 55 election.”

Winneshiek County Republican chairman Tom Hansen responded Dec. 26 by email.

   “….The court rightly understood its role in only determining whether the law as written was constitutional or not….,” said Hansen. “Democrats are now making an appeal to the legislature in an attempt to make the…argument that the Republicans, who control the Iowa House, do not care about counting every "valid ballot", even though they were, by law, not valid, and that Republicans want to "disenfranchise" voters.”

For more of this story see the Jan. 2 Outlook.