Hearing into contested Iowa House District 55 election runs two-and-a-half hours Wednesday

The Iowa Legislature's Election Contest Committee heard lengthy testimony Wednesday afternoon about the contested election results in Northeast Iowa's House District 55.

Attorneys for Democrat Kayla Koether and Republican Michael Bergan weighed in with their arguments about whether 29 absentee ballots which arrived at the Winneshiek County Courthouse after Election Day should be counted and included in the vote totals.

At the end of the two-and-a-half hour hearing, committee chair Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, said the committee's "only choice is to follow the law and not change the rules in the middle of the game," but he admitted the committee needed to determine what the intent of the state legislature was when it modified the rules about counting absentee ballots.

At the end of Wednesday's committee meeting, Holt asked both attorneys to submit a list of potential witnesses who could appear before the committee to answer questions.  He gave the attorneys until 2:00 Thursday afternoon to file the list.  A date for a follow-up committee meeting will not be scheduled until later, but Holt said the meeting won't be held until at least next week.