Libertarian candidates argue to judge to get back on Iowa ballot. When will a ruling come?

Attorneys for Iowa's Libertarian congressional candidates told a judge Thursday the candidates were unfairly removed from the November general election ballot, while lawyers for the state said the Libertarian Party failed to follow Iowa law when nominating its candidates.

The two-hour court hearing Thursday afternoon will determine whether Libertarian nominees Nicholas Gluba in the 1st District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District, will appear on Iowans' ballots this fall.

Last week, the State Objection Panel voted 2-1 to remove the three candidates from the ballot, siding with challenges from Republican voters who said the Libertarian Party's caucuses and county conventions failed to adhere to the law.

Jules Cutler, chair of the Libertarian Party of Iowa and an attorney for the Libertarian candidates, said the challenges to the party's candidates amount to bullying.

"The big kid on the block does not like the fact that the new kid on the block is coming to play," she said. "That’s what this case is about."

Alan Ostergren, an attorney representing the Republican voters who challenged the Libertarian candidates, said the Libertarians need to follow the same guidelines as candidates from other parties.

"No candidate has an unfettered right to access to the general election ballot," he said. "To get on the general election ballot, that candidate has to follow certain rules."

Aldrich told reporters after the hearing that the candidates shouldn't be punished if the party failed to follow the rules.

"We had no control over what they did to get us on the ballot," he said. "So it’s a party issue, it’s not a candidate issue. So the candidates should be on the ballot. If they want to go against the party, that’s up to them. But we did our part. We got on the ballot. They kicked us off."

The case could have implications on the 1st and 3rd district races in particular, which are being heavily contested by both Republicans and Democrats. 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.

Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert said he will issue a decision quickly. On Tuesday, Huppert ordered the state to delay certifying its general election ballots until the issue has been decided.

Any decision Huppert makes is expected to be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, which Huppert acknowledged when wrapping up the hearing.

"I will endeavor to get a ruling out that addresses all of these issues in relatively short order and perhaps get the matter en route to where it’s probably going to be ultimately decided," he said.

Libertarian caucus and convention procedures at issue

Iowa law requires political parties to follow certain steps when nominating candidates at a convention.

The Republican voters who objected to the three Libertarian candidates said the Libertarian Party improperly held its county conventions on the same night as its precinct caucuses on Jan. 15, even though state law says county convention delegates don't begin their terms until the day after they are chosen.

The panel also found that the Libertarian Party failed to notify county auditors of the results of its precinct caucuses, including the names of the people elected as county convention delegates, as required by state law.

"These are the kind of neutral, nondiscriminatory rules that apply to all candidates and are easily complied with," said Alan Ostergren, an attorney representing the Republican voters who challenged the Libertarian candidates. "The Libertarians have never suggested, they have never shown, that somehow it was impossible for them to comply with their obligations to do basic party organization tasks. They simply didn’t do it."

Jen De Kock, an attorney for Battaglia, said the Libertarian Party's caucuses and conventions were substantially in compliance with the law in question, Iowa Code Chapter 43. While the party began its county conventions 181 minutes before midnight, she said, that shouldn't justify keeping candidates off the ballot.

"We’ve acknowledged that proceeding to convention from caucus before 181 minutes had passed did not literally satisfy the statutory requirement," she said. "Yet the caucus and convention processes fulfilled these minimum objectives of Chapter 43."

Libertarians say GOP can't object to its nominating procedures

Attorneys for the Libertarians argued the State Objection Panel went outside its authority in finding that the Libertarian Party didn't follow state law when nominating its candidates.

Iowa Code Chapter 43.24 allows voters to challenge candidates' place on the ballot based on their nominating papers or their certificate of nomination. The candidates say the State Objection Panel went outside its authority by sustaining an objection related to the Libertarian Party's conventions.

De Kock said the State Objection Panel is not authorized "to poke its nose" into the minutia of a political party's caucuses and conventions.

"The objections we’re dealing with today are outside the purview of this panel," she said. "This panel is supposed to look at certificates of nomination and petitions for nomination. We are not talking about the greater scheme of voting rights in Iowa under the entirety of Chapter 43."

Patrick Valencia, a deputy solicitor general in the Iowa attorney general's office, said the candidates' nomination certificates were invalid because they were not nominated by properly elected delegates at the Libertarian Party's convention.

"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."

When do Iowa ballots need to be printed?

Any decision in the case will have to come soon.

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: Libertarians argue for reinstatement on Iowa ballot in court hearing