Three Libertarian congressional candidates are asking the Iowa Supreme Court to let them appear on Iowans’ ballots this fall.
They have appealed a Polk County District Court ruling issued Saturday that said the candidates cannot appear on ballots in the November election. The Iowa Supreme Court scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning.
Polk County District Judge Michael Huppert upheld the State Objection Panel’s decision to remove 1st Congressional District candidate Nicholas Gluba, 3rd District candidate Marco Battaglia and 4th District candidate Charles Aldrich from the ballot.
He wrote the panel had the legal authority to hear challenges to the Libertarians being on the ballot, and the panel properly used “a strict compliance standard” to find that the Libertarian Party of Iowa failed to follow state law for nominating its congressional candidates.
“Finally, the process utilized by the objectors through the efforts of the panel did not unconstitutionally infringe upon the associational rights of either the Libertarian Party or Iowa voters,” Huppert wrote.
He also dissolved the temporary injunction that was blocking the state from moving forward with finalizing ballots in the three congressional districts in question. County election officials must get ballots printed in time to start mailing ballots to overseas and military voters by Sept. 21.
Huppert’s ruling came two days after a court hearing where lawyers for Gluba, Battaglia and Aldrich argued that they should appear on the ballot as an option for Iowa voters this fall, while lawyers for the state and Republican objectors said the Libertarians cannot be on the ballot because they did not properly follow nominating procedures.
The big kid on the block does not like the fact that the new kid on the block is coming to play. That’s what this case is about.Jules Cutler, Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair
In court last Thursday, Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair Jules Cutler said the case is about bullying.
“The big kid on the block does not like the fact that the new kid on the block is coming to play. That’s what this case is about,” she said. “There are eight Republicans, in total, in the state of Iowa who are now trying to dictate what the State of Iowa voters have the choice to vote for.”
Cutler and other lawyers for the Libertarians said the party was in substantial compliance with the law. They said the conventions being held 181 minutes early — right after the caucuses rather than the following day — and the Libertarian Party of Iowa’s failure to report convention delegates to county auditors should have been considered technical violations, not grounds for being removed from the ballot.
Jennifer De Kock, representing one of the Libertarian candidates, said the law was being applied in a discriminatory way. She said this could serve as precedent for Republicans to go after more candidates in the future.
“What they’re trying to do is say, 'If you don’t do it, if you don’t follow the minutiae, if you don’t make sure all your t’s and i’s are properly crossed and dotted, then we’re going to take you off the ballot,'” De Kock said.
The Libertarians also accused the panel of violating their rights to free speech and association, and said that should outweigh whatever interest the state has in making political parties follow convention rules.
No candidate has an unfettered right to access to the general election ballot.Alan Ostergren, Republican attorney
Republican attorney Alan Ostergren said the state has an “obvious” interest in regulating who can be on the general election ballot.
“No candidate has an unfettered right to access to the general election ballot,” he said. “To get on the general election ballot, a candidate has to follow certain rules.”
Patrick Valencia with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office said the Libertarian Party of Iowa did not follow the rules for county conventions and for reporting elected delegates to county auditors.
“This creates an audit trail so the public knows who the delegates are, who was selected and who is representing this party,” he said. “Transparency and the representative nature of our elections is key, and this goes to the very heart of that.”
Lawyers for the state and the Libertarian candidates will be back in court Tuesday for a final hearing to determine if the candidates can appear on Iowans’ ballots.
