House District 55 election got mentioned frequently at weekend Legislative Forum in Decorah

There was no yelling at a Legislative Forum Saturday morning at Decorah City Hall, but there was no mistaking that the Iowa House District 55 election was on the minds of many of the 75 people attending.

Republican Michael Bergan, who has been declared the winner in the election by a 9-vote margin, refused to comment on the disputed election--but several audience members did.

Decorah resident Carol Birkland told the legislators, "I am enraged by what has happened."  She said voting--and having your ballot counted--is "the cornerstone of our republic."

Decorah resident Jodi Enos-Berlage said the Elections Contest Committee ruling to deny counting 29 absentee ballots which were mailed before the deadline "was determined by a technicality about how the mailing day is determined."

Democrat John Beard--who lost by a 17-vote margin to Republican Michael Breitbach in a 2012 State Senate election--urged the legislators to support a plan proposed by County Auditors--that any ballot which arrives in an Auditor's Office before polls close on Election Day be included in the totals and any ballot which arrives after Election Day be excluded.  Beard said such a system "would remove all this uncertainty."

Breitbach said he would support such legislation, calling it "fair and clear."