PRESS RELEASE (February 24, 2019) — Representative Mary Ann Hanusa, Iowa House District 16, has recently filed a pair of bills that would suppress ballot access rights for Libertarians, Greens, and other independent candidates. These bills would advance filing-dates five months for third-parties to Democrat/Republican primary-election deadlines and prohibit primary losers from filing candidacies as an independent or third-party. Third-parties do not enjoy primary election privileges and these proposed deadlines have adverse impacts on third-party presidential nominations in Iowa. The Libertarian and Green Party chairs have released this following joint statement:
"Rep Mary Ann Hanusa submitted House File 335 this past week to the Iowa House State Government Committee. This bill would move up candidate filing deadlines for non-party organizations (NPPO) like the Libertarian and Green Party candidates to the month of March, the same filing deadline for the major party primary candidates. As the Libertarian and Green national presidential nominating conventions will be held in the summer of 2020, well after the proposed deadline, we will be forced to petition in the dead of winter with substitute candidates, an additional hurdle for our ability to place candidates on the ballot. "Additionally, independent candidates would still have until the end of August to file their candidacies. As NPPO’s have the same status as independents, they should be held to the same ballot qualifications. We believe this bill is unconstitutional and discriminates against NPPO’s by not only prohibiting us from running our presidential nominees on the Iowa ticket, but by placing an undue burden on our candidates to meet a deadline designed for primary races, rather than the general election. The US Supreme court has ruled early filing deadlines as unconstitutional due to the burden they place on candidates (Anderson v Celebrezze). "It is unfortunate that Hanusa, a Republican, seeks to limit the choices of Iowa voters through government overreach by filing a blatantly unconstitutional bill. We do not see any true benefit to the citizens of Iowa if this is passed into law, we do understand this partisan bill is meant to protect the establishment parties at the expense of The Constitution and Iowa voters."
Joseph Howe — Libertarian Party of Iowa Chair
Henry Gaff — Iowa Green Party Chair
Since this statement was released on 02/15, this bill has advanced out of subcommittee along Republican Party lines. Per SCOTUS opinion Anderson vs Celebrezze, we find it unfortunate that our legislators would advance an unconstitutional bill. In 2018, the Libertarian Party had a record number of votes cast for Libertarian candidates and ran a record number of candidates. Nearly a dozen Libertarians are currently elected to county and city non-partisan offices and the party is concentrating on electing Libertarians to additional local offices in 2019. The Libertarian Party of Iowa has over 14,000 registered members and is the fastest growing political organization in Iowa. For more information about The Libertarian Party of Iowa, including photos to use in your publication, please contact us or visit: Lpia.org.
