The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on whether Libertarian congressional candidates will appear on the state ballot.
Three Libertarian candidates, Nicholas Gluba in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District, were removed from the Iowa ballot by the State Objections Panel in late August. The panel sided 2-1 with Republican voters who challenged the candidates on the basis of Libertarians’ nominating process being invalid.
The Libertarian Party of Iowa held its precinct caucuses and county conventions on Jan. 15. Lawyers with the state and GOP challengers pointed to Iowa Code stating delegates elected at caucuses do not begin in their positions until the following day — meaning the congressional candidacies of those nominated at the county conventions, as well as the June 8 special nominating conventions, were not conducted in compliance with state law.
The three Libertarian candidates appealed this decision. The attorneys representing the Libertarian candidates, the Libertarian Party of Iowa chair Jules Cutler and Jennifer DeKock, representing Battaglia, made multiple arguments in district court objecting to the panel decision. They said the body did not have the power to rule on the challenges brought by Republican voters and that the voters, who did not participate in the Libertarian nominating process, did not have standing to bring the objections.
Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert issued a ruling Saturday siding with the panel’s decision to remove Libertarian candidates from from the ballot, dismissing the appeal.
Huppert said in his ruling that Iowa law allows for voters to challenge nomination certificates issued by a party involving “something other than the content of that document,” such as a party’s nominating process.
“It is therefore logical to conclude that it must include whether the proper procedures required under the law were followed in generating that document,” he wrote. “Otherwise, as the intervenors point out, there would be no check against the use of nominating papers that are facially correct, but improperly offered in response to a party’s legitimate nominating process.”
Cutler argued in court that a major motivation for objectors challenging Libertarians’ candidacy is the impact of third-party choices in potentially competitive races. Cutler said Republicans were “bullying” Libertarians and unfairly targeting the party, which regained major party status in 2022.
The judge wrote that the panel ruling does not violate laws that prohibit the state from interfering with political party procedures, nor does it specifically target the Libertarian Party.
“Under the present circumstances, the court concludes that the process which formed the basis for the challenges to the Libertarian Party candidates being on the general election ballot is not a severe burden on either the party’s or the voters’ associational rights and represents a reasonable, nondiscriminatory restriction on a party’s ability to place their candidate before the voting public,” Huppert wrote. “The process is not weighed against the Libertarian Party–to the contrary, it is applicable to any group that qualifies as a major party under Iowa law.”
The Libertarian candidates appealed the decision, and the state Supreme Court set a hearing on an expedited timeline, with arguments scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.
There’s a fast-approaching deadline for making a decision in the case. The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office was set to certify ballots for the 2024 general election Sept. 3, but Huppert granted a temporary injunction to stop the process so that the Libertarian candidates’ appeal could be considered. Ballots are required to be certified and ready for overseas and military voters by Sept. 21, according to the office.
