Iowa’s Libertarian congressional candidates will not appear on the state’s ballot in November, according to a decision by the State Objection Panel on Wednesday.

The panel, made up of Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, Attorney General Brenna Bird – both Republicans – and Democratic Comptroller Rob Sand, voted 2-1 to uphold the challenges of three Libertarian candidates. With this decision, Nicholas Gluba, who is running in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, Marco Battaglia in the 3rd District and Charles Aldrich in the 4th District will not appear on Iowans’ ballots in the 2024 general election.

Libertarian Party candidates can appeal the appeals committee’s decision in district court. They must appear on the ballot by September 3. Jules Cutler, chairman of the Iowa Libertarian Party, said that while the party has not yet confirmed anything, it plans to appeal the decisions in court. If the appeal is unsuccessful, it will campaign as at-large candidates.

The objections were filed by Republican voters, some of whom hold leadership positions across the state, who said the Libertarian Party of Iowa failed to hold valid precinct caucuses to nominate congressional candidates in accordance with state law.

At the meeting, Republican attorney Alan Ostergren said the objections were filed because the Libertarian Party’s county conventions were held on the same day, January 15, as the party’s district conventions, even though state law states that the term of office of the convention delegates elected at the conventions does not officially begin until the day after they are elected.

Because of this wording, delegates elected at the precinct caucuses cannot take valid action at the district caucuses held on the same day, Ostergren said, making those caucuses and the special nomination caucuses on June 8 inadmissible.

Cutler said it was “embarrassing” that the Libertarian Party of Iowa did not follow established procedures exactly, but the nomination process was conducted with the compliance required for candidates to appear on the state’s ballot.

“It’s a learning process, it’s growing pains,” Cutler said. “But at the end of the day, we’re essentially following the law.”

Sand argued in the meeting that he did not believe the objectors had standing to file the objections because they were Republicans and had not participated in the Libertarian candidates’ nomination process. He also said Iowa law allows voters to challenge candidates based on their nomination papers and nomination certificates, but not on their party convention process.

“The law sets out what you can object to. It doesn’t say you can snoop around in the affairs of a minority party and try to find something where they made a mistake that you can object to,” Sand said in a news conference following the hearing.

Sand said it was the panel’s duty to address challenges with the mindset of “giving voters every legal opportunity to express their preference” and called for Libertarian candidates to appear on the ballot.

“Our job here is not to exclude people from voting,” Sand said. “Our job is to keep them on the ballot.”

Bird said at the meeting that Iowa law “makes it clear” that caucuses and precinct meetings cannot be held simultaneously. She also said the State Objections Panel has precedent for reviewing nominating caucuses and that the panel met to discuss the Libertarian Party’s 2017 convention process.

The Libertarian Party had previously lost its major party status but regained it in 2022 after its gubernatorial candidate Rick Stewart won more than 2% of the vote in the general election. Bird said the panel’s precedent states that major party status “comes with an obligation to comply with the Iowa Code,” which the Libertarian Party has failed to follow when nominating congressional candidates.

Pate said it was his job as secretary of state to ensure “consistent” enforcement of election laws.

“It’s not an ideal situation, but rules are rules,” Pate said. “And I as the election official can’t make them up, I can enforce them as they are. … I respect the fact that there is a lot of passion in both the candidates and the political parties, and I just hope that they take some time to understand that this is an important step in becoming a candidate. And if you want to do that, you have to do your homework. You have to know what you have to do to be a successful candidate and overcome the deadlock. That didn’t happen.”