I believe in fair elections where voters get to choose — not a panel that quietly removes candidates most Iowans have never heard of and replaces choice with a shorter list. That's exactly what happened when Iowa's State Objection Panel stripped three Libertarian candidates from the 2026 general election ballot because they filed nominating petitions under the names their neighbors actually know them by. Marco Battaglia, Nicholas Gluba, and Jules Cutler — including a candidate for governor — were removed over a paperwork technicality, not fraud, not forgery, not any harm to voters. Candidates using a common name instead of a legal name is something most of us do every single day.
This kind of gotcha rule doesn't protect elections. It protects incumbents. When a small panel can knock out an entire party's slate weeks before November, regular voters lose options — and they lose trust that the system is working for them. Iowa should have more voices in our elections, not fewer. If we want people to believe their vote matters, we have to let them actually have something worth voting for.
I'm asking you to publicly call on the State Objection Panel to restore these candidates to the November 2026 ballot and to support reforming Iowa's ballot access rules so that common-name discrepancies can be corrected rather than used to disqualify candidates.
Please act before the ballot printing deadline — Iowa voters are watching.
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