Will Iowa Supreme Court bail out Libertarians bumped off ballot over botched nominations?

Libertarian Party attorneys made a last-ditch plea Tuesday to the Iowa Supreme Court, asking for the party's three congressional candidates to be reinstated on the November general election ballot.

And the candidates' fate may hinge on the fact that the Libertarian Party held its county conventions 181 minutes too soon in January.

The three Libertarian Party nominees for Congress this year were removed from the ballot last month by a state panel, that found the party didn't follow the law when nominating its candidates at a special convention over the summer.

Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert upheld the State Objection Panel's decision last week, leaving the three Libertarians  — Nicholas Gluba in the 1st District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District, and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District — off the ballot.

More: Polk County judge rules Libertarian congressional candidates can't appear on Iowa ballots

The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Tuesday morning. The court plans to issue a decision by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

At issue is the process the Libertarian Party followed in nominating its three congressional candidates via a state convention in June.

The party held its precinct caucuses and its county conventions on the same night, Jan. 15 ― even though state law says county convention delegates do not begin their terms until the day after they are named.

The Republican voters who brought challenges against the three Libertarians' candidacies argued that the error meant the candidates were not properly nominated at the Libertarian Party's state convention in June, since the earlier county convention delegates were not properly elected.

Attorneys for the Libertarian Party argued the issues did not merit being removed from the ballot.

"The fundamental question before this court is does the failure to wait 181 minutes after caucus to begin convention justify kicking Libertarian candidates off the ballot and violating Iowa voters’ constitutional rights to political opportunity?" said Jen De Kock, an attorney for Battaglia. "We believe that petitioners and precedent say no."

Alan Ostergren, an attorney for the Republican voters who challenged the three Libertarian candidates, acknowledged that "it seems harsh" when the rules governing elections are applied, but that the state requires parties to follow the law exactly.

"If the caucus ends at 11:59 and the county convention starts at 12:01, is that valid? Yes," he said. "If you file a lawsuit a minute before the statute of limitations, is it valid? Yes. If you file it a minute late, is it valid? No."

Speaking to reporters after the arguments, Battaglia said he did everything he could as a candidate to make sure he was doing things the right way.

"If the Republicans or the Democrats got accused of not having their convention within a few hours of the time they were supposed to, I would not personally have challenged their ballot access," he said. "I wouldn’t have felt that was my place and I would have seen it as a pretty honest mistake."

All three of the Libertarian congressional candidates plan to mount write-in campaigns if they aren't reinstated on the ballot.

"If they use lawfare to take me off the ballot, I will stay in until the end of the race, regardless," Battaglia said.

Libertarians held their county conventions 181 minutes too early. Should that keep their congressional candidates off the ballot?

Iowa Supreme Court justices grilled attorneys for both sides on whether starting the county conventions three hours early should result in candidates being removed from the ballot.

"Three hours does seem kind of ticky-tack," said Chief Justice Susan Christensen. "Help me understand, are we looking at substantial compliance or strict compliance?"

"Why is the remedy for the fact that they held their county convention three hours early nullification of everything that happened?" Justice Dana Oxley said.

"They acted three hours too soon," said Justice Christopher McDonald. "Why should we care if there’s no contest as to who the actual delegates are and there’s no contest that they would have had legal authority to exercise, to vote for delegates, if they had waited a sufficient amount of time? It seems like the case law is pretty clear that we’re not going to allow these kinds of challenges? So why wouldn’t that apply here?"

Will Admussen, an assistant solicitor general in the Iowa attorney general's office who argued on behalf of the State Objection Panel, said it's important that the timing requirements in state election laws be followed.

"I would say for the same reason that if a Senate is elected and 181 minutes before that Senate’s term starts they start passing laws and confirming judges," he answered McDonald. "We should care that they took an action without authority because it’s a building block of democracy."

"That’s the big deal that we’re here about?" Justice Matthew McDermott said. "One hundred and eighty-one minutes?"

"Yes, the Libertarian Party was close," Admussen said. "One hundred and eighty-one minutes. But there’s no provision in chapter 43.94 that allows for substantial compliance, unlike other parts of the code."

De Kock said Iowa provides other avenues to correct technical violations of the law that wouldn't result in candidates being thrown off the ballot. Those procedures are what should have been followed, she said.

She said the fundamental rights of Libertarian voters are at stake in the case.

"We do not believe that strict compliance is appropriate here because we’re talking about fundamental rights," she said. "So strict compliance with what is inherently an administrative statute is an improper standard to apply for denial of fundamental constitutional rights."

Congressional races in Iowa's 1st and 3rd districts this year are expected to be competitive, and the presence of a third-party candidate on the ballot could make a difference. Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn won his 3rd District seat in 2022 by just over 2,000 votes, with no Libertarian on the ballot.

Iowa's ballots must be printed before Sept. 21 — the date when military and overseas ballots must be mailed to voters under federal law.

Early voting for all other voters begins Oct. 16. The election is Nov. 5.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court hears case after Libertarians kicked off ballot