A Polk County district court granted a temporary injunction preventing the Iowa Secretary of State from certifying the 2024 general election ballots on Tuesday. 

The ruling gives three Iowa Libertarian candidates for Congress time to litigate their removal from the general election ballot by the State Objection Panel last week. 

The state panel voted 2-1, with both Republicans on the panel voting to uphold the Republican activist-led objection to the candidacy of the three Libertarian candidates. 

The objections brought by the activists claimed the Libertarian Party did not follow proper procedures for precinct and county conventions, thus invalidating their special convention to nominate the three congressional candidates.  

The Libertarian Party of Iowa represented the candidates in the proceedings and filed a motion to temporarily block the Secretary of State’s office from certifying the ballots until the libertarian’s arguments for reinstatement to the ballot could be heard by the court. 

“This is a crucial step forward in our fight for electoral justice,” Jules Cutler, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Iowa and the lawyer representing the candidates in court, said in a news release Tuesday. “We are confident that, upon full review, our candidates will be reinstated, allowing Iowans to have a true choice at the ballot box this November.”