Iowa Libertarian congressional candidates file petition to get back on November ballot

DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) - The Libertarian Party of Iowa filed a petition Friday in the Polk County District Court in an attempt to get two of their Congressional candidates back on the ballot.

The Libertarian Party is asking the court to issue an injunction to prevent Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office from certifying the ballots on Tuesday and delay counties from printing their ballots just yet.

This comes on the heels of a state panel decision Wednesday to boot three candidates off the ballot because they didn’t follow proper procedures when holding county conventions.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa is petitioning on behalf of Nicholas Gluba, a candidate in Eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District and Charles Aldirch in Western Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. In the petitions, the party says that since the objectors to their candidacies are Republicans, they had no grounds to file object to them being on the ballot.

“It would be one thing if they claimed to be Libertarians who were frozen out of the nomination party by the failure to follow the requirements of chapter 43. But, objectors make no such claim,” the petition says.

The petition with the court also claims the State Objection Panel had no right to kick them off of the ballot on the basis that the party failed to follow its organizational statues.

The hearings were held due to objections filed by six people who claim to be Iowa residents — two from each congressional district. But the Libertarian Party of Iowa says the objectors didn’t in any way have to verify who they are.

The Libertarian Party claims that the objection should’ve been rejected because the objectors failed to provide their address or registration status.

“Their addresses on their objections are not listed,” Party Chair Jules Cutler said. “We have no way of verifying that they’re actually residents of those counties.”

State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, was the only official on the three-member state objection panel to vote to keep the Libertarians on the ballot. He echoed the party’s concerns.

Read the documents

“We just have two names from two people, but they haven’t provided an affidavit that they live in the state of Iowa and they haven’t provided their address. I don’t know if they’ve met their burden. Obviously, the other two folks on the panel weren’t concerned about that,” he said.

The other two people on the panel that ruled on the complaint were Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate and Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird.

Alan Ostergren, the attorney for the objectors, says they didn’t need to provide any verification. “There’s nothing in the code that requires it to be done in a sworn objection. Just simply state in writing what the objection is,” he said.

We checked out the law, and it says that objections to a candidate’s eligibility may be filed by anyone who would have the right to vote for the candidate for the office in question. Iowa’s law requires you to provide identification to vote but we couldn’t find anything in it that requires proof for someone trying to remove candidates from the election day ballot.

In his dissent to taking the Libertarians off the ballot, Sand says that since these objectors’ address and registration status weren’t provided to the panel, the panel can’t just assume the objectors are valid objectors.

Pate says it’s unfortunate to have to kick someone off the ballot, but candidates need to make sure that their party followed the rules and, in this case, the Libertarian Party didn’t follow the rules for its county convention delegates, so their nominations of the libertarian congressional candidates were not valid.

“It’s not an ideal situation, but the rules are the rules and I as a commissioner of elections don’t get to make them up. I need to enforce them as they are,” Pate said.

At least some of the objectors are involved in Republican politics. In his dissent, State Auditor Sand says he doesn’t think those Republicans had the right to object, because they aren’t libertarians and the objections were based on the Libertarians’ internal party processes.

The objection hearings were held based on the fact that the Libertarian Party held their caucuses and county conventions on the same day, which is against state law. The petition says that that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that state law can’t dictate how political parties choose their convention delegates.

At the hearing Wednesday, Cutler said that holding caucuses and conventions on the same day was a “technical violation.”

In her petition Friday, she said: “A political party holding county conventions a few minutes early in January should be considered technical and not warrant removing candidates properly nominated in June. To follow the objectors’ logic, because the time for county conventions has passed, all actions of the Libertarian Party of Iowa are moot for the next two years until the next precinct caucuses are held. That cannot be the standard of law. The panel should have overruled the objection based on the alleged violation being technical and issued a Notice to Cure, as required under Iowa Law.

Marco Battaglia, the candidate for central Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, sought his own counsel separate from the Libertarian Party. Battaglia says his attorney will file an petition before the end of the day.

We’ve reached out to Secretary of State Pate, State Auditor Sand, and Attorney General Bird for comment on the petitions.

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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV or on X/Twitter @ConnerReports.