Here's what happened at Thursday afternoon's House District 55 court hearing

Polk County Circuit Judge Scott Beattie heard one hour of arguments Thursday afternoon in the lawsuit brought by Democratic House District 55 candidate Kayla Koether over 29 uncounted absentee ballots.  Judge Beattie said he would issue a ruling on all three motions Thursday night, but no rulings had been made by 9:30 p.m.

Des Moines reporter Rox Laird covered Thursday's court hearing:

"Attorneys for Winneshiek County Auditor Benjamin Steines and Iowa Secretary of State Paul urged a District Court judge Thursday to dismiss House District 55 candidate Kayla Koether's lawsuit seeking to have late-arriving absentee ballots counted.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Matthew Gannon and Assistant Winneshiek County Attorney Stephen Belay argued at a court hearing Thursday that the case should be dismissed because the District Court does not have jurisdiction to hear Koether's challenge of the November 6th election result. Or, at least, they argue that the plaintiff's exclusive claims against the county auditor should be moved to Winneshiek County.

Koether's attorney, Shayla McCormally of Des Moines, objected to Pate's and Steines' motions. In addition, McCormally filed a motion with the court seeking clarification an earlier court's order regarding the challenged ballots.

Polk County District Judge Scott Beattie said he would issue a ruling on all three motions later Thursday. The outcome of this lawsuit could have implications beyond House District 55, as it raises questions about the procedures outlined in state law for determining the validity of late-arriving absentee ballots.

Gannon told Judge Beattie Thursday that the Iowa Constitution clearly assigns jurisdiction for contesting elections to the Iowa General Assembly, in this case the Iowa House, not the District Court.  The plaintiffs say they only want the ballots counted, Gannon said, but, "when we pull the ribbon off that package" what they really want is to contest the outcome of the election. "What is the correct tribunal to count those ballots? Clearly it is the Iowa House of Representatives."

In response, McCormally said Koether is not contesting the election. Rather, she said, her client is asking that the County Auditor be ordered to do his job, which is to open and count all valid absentee ballots. "We are not asking for the outcome to be changed," McCormally said. "This is not an election contest."

Assistant County Attorney Belay, who joined the hearing by phone, told the judge that the auditor could not open and count those absentee ballots because they did not contain the legally required postmark or the correct intelligent mail bar code as defined by the Iowa Administrative Code.

Koether sued Winneshiek County Auditor Steines, in his capacity as county election commissioner, and Secretary of State Pate, in his capacity as state elections commissioner, on November 29th. Koether asked the District Court to order that 33 absentee ballots that arrived at the County Auditor's office after November 6th be counted if it is proved they were mailed by November 5th as legally required.

The absentee ballots could change the outcome of the election, which was decided by just nine votes. Incumbent Republican Representative Michael Bergan was declared the winner after the votes were counted November 6th with 6,924 votes. Koether, a Democrat, received 6,915.

Koether argued in her lawsuit that the ballots should be counted if it could be proved they were delivered to the U.S. Postal Service on or before November 5th, as required by Iowa law. The law requires that, in order to be counted, late-arriving absentee ballots must bear a postmark or an "intelligent mail bar code" indicating the date they were delivered to the Postal Service. The 33 challenged ballots were imprinted with intelligent mail bar codes.

At the direction of the District Court, the bar codes on the 33 ballots were examined by the U.S. Postal Service in Waterloo, which showed that 29 of those were mailed on November 5th, the deadline in order to be counted. One ballot was mailed on November 6th and three ballots were invalid for other reasons."