Republican congressional candidates Brad Dempsey and Carl Andersen said Friday they intend to challenge rulings that they didn’t submit enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the June primary ballot in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District.

The candidates told Colorado Politics they’re confident they collected the required number of signatures and could ask a court to reverse a decision by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office that they fell short.

One Democrat and three Republicans have already landed spots on their respective parties’ June 28 primary ballots in the competitive Jefferson County-based district, which has been represented for eight terms by retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Arvada Democrat.

In Colorado, major party congressional candidates can qualify for the primary through the caucus and assembly process or by collecting 1,500 signatures from district residents registered with their party.

Golden economist Tim Reichert learned on March 24 that he qualified by petition for the Republicans’ 7th CD primary with 2,361 valid signatures. Last week, former oil and gas executive Erik Aadland and former legislative candidate Laurel Imer made the primary at the GOP’s district assembly, with Aadland taking top-line on the ballot. Aadland switched to the assembly route after initially failing to qualify by petition, where he was 46 signatures short.

State Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, became the presumptive Democratic nominee for the seat last week after winning an overwhelming majority of the delegate vote at the party’s district assembly.

Andersen, a Teller County construction company owner, learned late Friday that the secretary of state’s Elections Division rejected 3,417 of the 4,462 signatures his campaign submitted, leaving 1,045 valid signatures, according to a statement of insufficiency.

Dempsey, a Golden attorney, had a lower rejection rate but also came up short, officials said in an insufficiency statement released simultaneously with Andersen’s. Of the 2,232 signatures Dempsey’s campaign submitted, 1,249 were accepted and 983 were denied.

“I am confident we submitted more than enough valid signatures from voters who want my name on the ballot,” Andersen said in an email. “I intend to quickly pursue my legal options to get on the ballot.”

Added a spokeswoman for Andersen’s campaign: “Carl Andersen is the fighter the CD-7 constituents deserve. Good people bowing out and not fighting is why our state and country is in the current position that it is.”

Dempsey said in a statement that he was “stunned” so many of the signatures he turned in had been rejected. Noting that three of the four Republicans who attempted to petition onto the 7th CD ballot had failed, Dempsey called the outcome “a flashing First Amendment warning light that must be checked.”

“To ensure that the Secretary of State’s Office has faithfully fulfilled its duty to honor each voter’s First Amendment right to nominate their candidate of choice, we must carefully review how the Secretary of State’s Office has carried out its role and reached its decision to reject such a substantial amount of voter signatures on my petition and the petitions of other candidates,” Dempsey said in a written statement, adding that he appreciated the office’s assistance in reviewing its signature verification.

“I owe it to the voters who signed my petition to conduct a First Amendment audit of the Secretary of State’s performance of its duties and, if warranted, to challenge the Secretary of State’s rejection of so many signatures,” he said. “Each person who signed my petition deserves to have their voice heard, and I will be working with my campaign team to ensure that is exactly what happens.”

Andersen and Dempsey have until April 20 to file an appeal in Denver District Court.

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Jena Griswold didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Candidates who turn in their petitions ahead of their primary rivals have an advantage because a voter can only sign one petition for the same office. Once a voter’s signature has been ruled valid for one candidate, the same voter can’t be counted on a petition submitted later by a potential primary opponent.

Among the Republicans petitioning in the 7th CD, Aadland turned his petitions in first, on Feb. 22, followed by Reichert on March 10, Andersen on March 11 and Dempsey on March 15, the day they were due.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, only five of the 31 federal and state-level candidates who submitted petitions by the deadline received statements of insufficiency this year. Another six candidates withdrew their petitions – in a few instances because they decided against pressing their case after initially coming up short on signatures, and in others because the candidates qualified for the ballot at assembly, making their petitions moot.

Griswold has until April 29 to certify the primary ballot. County clerks have to send mail ballots to military and overseas voters by May 14, and ballots start going in the mail to the bulk of Colorado’s registered voters on June 6. Ballots must be returned to county clerks by 7 p.m. June 28.