ANALYSIS: The two attorneys in the battle over Iowa House 55 ballot counting are stressing different issues

Posted: Sun, Jan 20, 2019 4:57 PM

The attorney for Democrat Kayla Koether, Shayla McCormally, and the attorney for Republican Michael Bergan, Matthew McDermott, are making different arguments before the Iowa House of Representative's Election Contest Committee.

Committee chair Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, is expected to announce early this week what step the committee will take next. Holt asked both attorneys to submit a list of possible witnesses the committee could hear from this coming week.

Holt commented that the committee's "only choice is to follow the law and not change the rules in the middle of the game," but he also said the committee needs to determine what the intent of the state legislature was when it modified the rules about counting absentee ballots.

Koether's attorney, Shayla McCormally, is arguing that the state legislature wanted to have all legally cast ballots counted. Her arguments have centered on the issue of fairness.

Bergan's attorney, Matthew McDermott, is arguing the mechanics of the legislation, saying "a barcode is not a barcode, is not a barcode." He says the legislature intended the phrase 'intelligent mail barcode..to mean mailer-applied barcodes used for Intelligent Mail Tracing, rather than the postal processing code.

So as the Election Contest Committee gets ready to decide what its next step should be, it will also have to give time to consider the question of whether to look at the big picture or look at the fine print.