The state Board of Appeals voted 2-1 on Wednesday to exclude three Libertarian congressional candidates from the November ballot.

The two Republicans on the panel, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, voted for a Republican challenger and requested that their names be removed from the ballot.

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat, voted against her dismissal.

This means that Nicholas Gluba (District 1), Marco Battaglia (District 3) and Charles Aldrich (District 4) would not be on the ballot.

The lawsuit, led by Republicans, questioned whether the Libertarians met the requirements, arguing that they had failed to hold county meetings and had failed to provide county auditors with the names of those elected at the county meeting, as required by state law.

In their objection, they argued that, to their knowledge, the Iowa Libertarian Party had proceeded directly from the county caucuses to a state convention to nominate its congressional candidates without holding a county convention to select delegates.

The Libertarian Party said Wednesday it was considering appealing the decision. The party just received “major party” status in Iowa when it received more than 2% of the vote in the 2022 general election.