Former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa) will appear on the upcoming primary ballot for a U.S. Senate representing Iowa, the state’s top court ruled on April 15.
The Iowa Supreme Court overturned a lower court order that concluded Finkenauer did not meet signature requirements.
Three signatures—two with no dates and one with the incorrect date—are at the core of the matter. Without them, Finkenauer does not have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Under state law, the date is required for each signature.
But justices said a more recent law outlining particulars of objecting to signatures, passed by Iowa lawmakers in 2021, takes precedent.
“The legislature did not include missing or incorrect dates as one of the grounds for sustaining an objection to a petition,” they wrote in the decision. “We conclude that the recent legislation prevails.”
The case was brought by Republicans who asserted that the signatures weren’t valid and therefore Finkenauer lacked the required signatures.
The State Objection Panel voted 2-1 in March to reject the challenge but Polk County District Judge Scott Beattie ruled Monday for the challengers, finding that state law was clear regarding the need to have a proper date.
“One signature put the zip code instead of the date, one inserted what appears to be a birth date, and one was blank. The statute requires ‘the date of signing.’ None of these signatories included even part of the date of the signature,” he said, adding that the three individuals “failed to even ‘substantially comply’ with the date requirement.”
Finkenauer, who served one term in Congress before losing in the 2020 election to Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), is considered a potential Democrat primary winner.
This is an excerpt from The Epoch Times.
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