Iowa judge rules against libertarian candidates and keeps their names off the congressional ballot

DES MOINES, Iowa — Three Libertarian candidates vying for a U.S. House seat in Iowa will not appear on the ballot this November, after a judge on Saturday upheld a state elections board's decision.

The ruling came following an appeal by the candidates after the State Objection Panel, which consists of one Democratic and two Republican officials, decided by a 2-1 majority that the Libertarian candidates should be removed from the ballot on technical grounds.

The panel agreed with several Republican Party officials who argued that the Libertarian Party violated state law when it nominated candidates at its convention, which was held the same day as the county caucuses at which the candidates were selected. Under state law, the term of convention delegates begins the day after the caucuses.

This means that the Libertarian Party candidates were not nominated at valid district conventions, argued conservative lawyer Alan Ostergren.

Polk County District Judge Michael Huppert agreed, rejecting the candidates' arguments that the state board did not have the authority to remove them from the ballot, finding that state law “is binding in nature and requires strict compliance.”

“The panel reached the right conclusion in requiring this level of compliance,” Huppert wrote.

The two Republican members of the panel, Attorney General Brenna Bird and Secretary of State Paul Pate, sided with the challengers, saying the parties were required to follow the rules for nominating candidates. The only dissenting vote in the three-member panel came from Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand, who accused his colleagues of political bias.

Independent or third-party candidates typically have little chance of winning, but the question of how their vote share might affect the outcome of the race is on the minds of both Democratic and Republican leaders.

“In general, parties are concerned about smaller parties taking votes away from them,” said Stephen Medvic, professor of government at Franklin and Marshall College. “It's a pretty simple calculation. The Libertarian is more likely to take votes away from the Republicans.”

Third-party challenges to candidates are as common as the election cycle, Medvic says, and especially at the presidential election level, they often occur in swing states, where a fraction of the vote for a third-party candidate can have the greatest impact.

One of Iowa's four congressional races was decided by a razor-thin margin in 2022. Republican Zach Nunn, challenging incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne, won by less than one percentage point. There was no third-party candidate.

The Libertarian Party of Iowa achieved major party status in 2022 when its candidate for governor received the support of more than 2% of voters.

The prosecutor told the judge at a hearing Thursday that the state's rules for the major parties were reasonable and non-discriminatory, ensuring an organized and transparent nomination process, and argued that Iowa's interest in barring the candidates from the ballot was to preserve the integrity of the election.

Libertarian Party of Iowa Chairman Jules Cutler told the judge this was “bullying” to exclude the “little boy on the block” from the ballot. Cutler called the party's technical errors embarrassing but argued they should not invalidate the nominations.

The judge's decision means that the names of Libertarian candidates Nicholas Gluba in the 1st District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District will not appear on the ballot – for now.

The ballots were scheduled to be certified by Pate's office on Sept. 3, but the judge ordered certification to be stayed until the matter could be heard in court. An appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court is still possible, which would further delay certification and the printing of the ballots.