The complete list of candidates who’ve qualified for the Iowa Republican and Democratic Party’s Primary Elections on June 2 is likely to be released late Monday or on Tuesday. Friday at 5 p.m. was the deadline for candidates to walk into the Iowa Secretary of State’s office with their nominating paperwork.
Republican Eddie Andrews, who’s been campaigning for governor, entered at 4:55 p.m. with a group of campaign volunteers carrying petitions they’d been scrambling for over an hour to organize. Andrews filled out his affidavit of candidacy form as a couple of volunteers were still clipping batches of petitions together.
“We’re having fun, OK?” Andrews said.
The volunteer doing most of the organizing joked about the situation as reporters looked on: “We had to have some drama for the press.” Andrews replied: “If there’s no drama, I mean seriously, why would we even try?”
When it came to the identity verification part of the process, Andrews used the Capitol ID card he gets as a member of the state legislature because Andrews left his driver’s license in his car. Before Andrews left the secretary of state’s office, he posed for a photo with the seven people who were part of the deadline sprint.
“Thank you guys,” Andrews said and one of his volunteers asked: “Where’s the sparking apple cider?”
State election staff are working over the weekend to count signatures and verify if candidates like Andrews who filed near the deadline had qualified for the ballot. Candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor must have the signatures of at least 3500 eligible Iowa voters, with at least 100 signatures on petitions from 19 different counties.
This is the ninth Primary Election cycle Secretary of State Paul Pate has been overseeing this process and he spoke with Radio Iowa just after Andrews and his team left the secretary of state’s office. “There’s always someone who comes in at the last minute and I can understand some of the things they go through trying to get their campaign paperwork together,” Pate said, “but obviously we encourage them to get in here a little earlier since we have a three-week window to file.”
Pate’s staff counts signatures not once, but twice to make sure the count is verified, then there’s an objection period where signatures on a candidate’s nominating petitions can be challenged. Julie Stauch, a Democrat who’d been running for governor, submitted her nominating petitions on Thursday, but Stauch announced last night on social media that she’d been notified by the secretary of state’s office on Friday that she did not meet the signature threshold. It means State Auditor Rob Sand will be the only candidate for governor on Democrats’ primary ballots.
Here’s a link to all the requirements for nominating petitions. This is a link to the candidate list, which will be updated Monday.
