The Iowa State Board of Canvass voted on Monday to certify a Republican congressional candidate as the winner of an election for the state’s 2nd district, with a recount leaving Mariannette Miller-Meeks up on Democrat Rita Hart by a mere six votes.

The final standing result for the election of Iowa’s 2nd congressional district leaves Miller-Meeks with 196,964 votes, and Hart with 196,568 votes. Miller-Meeks’ margin of victory had stood at 47 votes before a mandatory recount, dwindling to a final lead of a half dozen. The election is slated to become the closes congressional race in the United States since 1984, and the closest in Iowa since 1916.

Hart is expected to legally challenge the vote after Monday’s certification. A GOP victory in the Democrat-leaning swing district would be the 14th Republican pickup this year, significantly eroding the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives.

“While the race is extraordinarily close, I am proud to have won this contest and look forward to being certified as the winner,” said Miller-Meeks, an Iowa State Senator representing Ottumwa on Saturday when declaring victory. “It is the honor of a lifetime to be elected to serve the people of eastern and southern Iowa. Iowans are tenacious, optimistic and hardworking, and I will take those same attributes to Washington, D.C., on their behalf.”

The recount process had proven dramatic, with results of Miller-Meeks’ outstanding lead placed in jeopardy when a recount board identified and counted dozens of absentee ballots that weren’t previously accounted for. It’s likely Hart will litigate in hopes of getting county clerks to count additional ballots that had been ruled unlawful.

As the nation demands answers to allegations of pervasive election misconduct and voter fraud, it’s worth noting that only a handful of ballots can overturn the end result of many local, county, and state elections. Let no illegal ballot infiltrate the final count, and let no legal vote go uncounted.