Supreme Court rejects Narcisse’s bid to get on Iowa’s June primary ballot

DES MOINES – The Iowa Supreme Court on Monday turned down candidate Jonathan Narcisse's request to have his name placed on the Democratic Party's 2014 Iowa primary election ballot.

In an expedited ruling, the justices upheld a district court ruling backing the Iowa Secretary of State's determination that Narcisse did not present enough petition signatures to qualify as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate for the June 3 primary. Justice Brent Appel did not take part in the case.

The court put the ruling on a fast track because Iowa election officials asserted that primary ballots were due to the printer for many counties by Monday. In reviewing the record and the applicable law, the justices who considered the case all agreed to affirm the district judge's decision that he was not eligible for the 2014 Democratic primary ballot.

“The secretary's position has always been to try to keep people on the ballot, but in this case we had to follow the rule of law and the minimum requirements were not met and the court determined that Mr. Narcisse could not be on the ballot,” said Chance McElhaney, spokesman for Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz in a prepared statement.

Some of Narcisse's petition signatures were rejected because his name was not listed at the top of the petition pages. The Des Moines activist argued that the petitions should have been accepted because similar mistakes on petitions were made by a congressional candidate who qualified for the ballot in 2012. He has indicated he may pursue a write-in campaign in June or consider a third-party bid in November.

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