Ballots at the primary election polling place for Des Moines precincts 12 and 13 on June 4 at First Church of the Open Bible in Des Moines. (Photo by Jim Obradovich for Iowa Capital Dispatch)
With only weeks remaining before ballots must be certified for the 2024 general election, Iowa Libertarian congressional candidates argued in District Court Thursday to regain their place on the ballot.
Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert heard arguments from lawyers representing Nicholas Gluba in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District, as well as from attorneys representing the Republican voters who challenged their candidacies and the State Objections Panel.
On Aug. 28, the State Objections Panel, headed by Republicans Secretary of State Paul Pate and Attorney General Brenna Bird as well as Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, ruled 2-1 along party lines to remove the three candidates from Iowa ballots. Republicans challenged the legitimacy of the Libertarian Party of Iowa’s nominating process.
Pate and Bird found the objection to be valid, as the state Libertarian Party held its county conventions on the same day as its precinct caucuses, despite Iowa Code stating that delegates elected at caucuses do not begin in their positions until the next day. Noncompliance with the law means that the county conventions, as well as the June 8 special nominating conventions, are invalid, they and lawyers with the state and GOP challengers argued.
Alan Ostergren, the lawyer representing the objectors in the case, said the panel decision should be upheld as there is a clear state interest in regulating the formation and qualifications for candidates to get on the general election ballot.
“No candidate has an unfettered right to access to the general election ballot,” Ostergren said. “To get on the general election ballot, a candidate has to follow certain rules. If that candidate wants to get on the ballot by being nominated by his or her party, that party has to follow the rules in order to have access to the ballot.”
However, lawyers representing the Libertarian candidates brought multiple challenges to this ruling. One of the arguments made by Jennifer DeKock, the attorney representing Battaglia, was that the objections panel did not have the authority to rule on the objections brought, as Iowa statute allows the body to review challenges from voters based on their nominating papers and certificates of nomination, but not necessarily a party’s convention process.
For some of the county conventions being challenged, these events were held just 181 minutes before midnight, DeKock said. She argued that while the Libertarian Party nominating process did not “literally satisfy the statutory requirement,” that it was sufficiently in Iowa law to stand.
Libertarians, as well as Sand in his dissent on the panel’s decision, also cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states cannot dictate party nominating processes in regards to minutiae and procedure.
“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 that all your t’s and i’s are crossed and dotted, then we’re going to take you off the ballot,” DeKock argued. “If you don’t comply, then your substantive rights are destroyed.”
Lawyers for the challenged candidates also argued that the voters who objected to the Libertarian candidates did not have standing to do so, as they did not participate in the Libertarian nominating process. But Patrick Valencia, the deputy solicitor general from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, representing the objections panel, said the objectors filed the challenges in line with Iowa law because the delegates had not followed the requirements laid out in state law.
“The legal sufficiency of the certificate of nomination is what objections can be made for,” he said. “And here, the objectors said this this certificate was legally insufficient because the person who issued it had no authority to issue it.”
Jules Cutler, the Libertarian Party of Iowa chair and attorney representing Gluba and Aldrich, also argued that these challenges were politically motivated. While all of Iowa’s federal congressional delegation is currently Republican, election analysts say that there could be competitive races in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd districts. Having a third-party candidate on the ballot could potentially have a significant impact in competitive districts.
Cutler said that the takeaway of the case was that Libertarian candidates were facing “bullying.”
“The big kid on the block does not like the fact that the new kid is coming to play,” Cutler said.
The hearing took place just two days after Huppert granted a temporary injunction of ballot certification for the case on Tuesday — the date when the Secretary of State’s office would typically finalize candidates for the ballot. While the temporary injunction is currently in effect, officials with the Secretary of State’s office said that the Sept. 21 deadline for ballots to be certified and ready for overseas and military voters is fast approaching.
Huppert said Thursday he understands the case is a “time-sensitive topic,” and he expects his decision, regardless of outcome, to be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.
“I will endeavor to get a ruling out that addresses all of these issues in relatively short order, and perhaps get the matter to where it’s probably going to be ultimately decided,” he said.