House committee starts process for dealing with two contested elections Print this article House Administration Committee members convened briefly Friday afternoon to start establishing procedures in contested election cases filed under the Federal Contested Election Act. The committee is reviewing two contested elections: Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District and Illinois’s 14th Congressional District. Iowa Democrat Rita Hart lost to Republican Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks by six votes out of more than 394,000 ballots that were cast. Miller-Meeks was certified the winner of the election following a recount and a recanvass of the district’s 24 counties, but Hart, who decided against going to court, instead contested the election to the House of Representatives.