A Polk County judge has ruled that Libertarian candidates Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler cannot be added back onto the ballot this November, after they were kicked off by the State Objection Panel in June.
The two were filing to run as a Libertarian gubernatorial ticket, with Gluba running for governor and Cutler vying for lieutenant governor. The panel determined Cutler failed to submit the needed affidavit of candidacy.
Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair Stephanie Berlin said the pair is considering appealing the panel’s decision.
“We are clearly unhappy with the decision and the pathway this has taken us down,” Berlin said. “However, we are exploring our next steps.”
The objections filed against the Libertarian candidates come as Iowa’s governor’s race is slated to be highly competitive, with political forecasters ranking the race as a “toss up.” A third-party candidate could draw votes away from major party candidates in a tight race.
Candidate claims she followed guidance from an election official
After being removed from the ballot, Gluba and Cutler filed an appeal June 23, asking a judge to reverse the panel’s decision and add them back to the November ballot.
At a hearing in Polk County District Court on July 21, Cutler claimed that she offered her affidavit to Dani Phillips, an elections official, who told her it was “not needed.”
“She came out of that office with her glasses, meaning business,” Cutler said at the hearing. “She knew what she was doing. At the very least, she presented herself as such, and I had no reason whatsoever to doubt that that's not true.”
Phillips said Cutler didn’t try to offer her the document. And, Phillips said, she didn’t remember whether Cutler was present when Gluba submitted the nominating petitions.
Despite disagreeing with the panel’s finding that Cutler never offered the affidavit and Phillips never declined or refused to receive Cutler’s affidavit of candidacy, Judge Joseph Seidlin did not overturn the decision.
“Although a close call, there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the panel’s findings, including Phillips’s unequivocal statements that she was never offered an affidavit by Cutler, and that fact that her job as an election support specialist is to receive and process election filings, not to reject or refuse them,” he wrote.
Judge says Pate is not required to take himself off panel
Gluba and Cutler also argued Secretary of State Paul Pate should have recused himself from the three-person State Objection Panel due to the dispute involving an employee in his office.
In his decision, Seidlin denied there was a basis for recusal simply due to the credibility of Pate’s employee being called into question.
“There must be direct, compelling evidence of personal knowledge that he [Pate] is unable to set aside,” he wrote. “No such evidence was presented to the panel and none has been presented here.”
In another court filing, the pair asked for Gluba to still appear on the November ballot and be allowed to nominate a different lieutenant governor.
Whether Gluba can stay on the ballot with a different lieutenant governor candidate is unclear. Seidlin wrote that filling a vacancy for a candidate, if applicable in this case, would be separate from objection proceedings.
Berlin told IPR News the party is exploring whether Gluba would be able to proceed with a different lieutenant governor.
