A Denver judge ruled late Wednesday that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Republican primary challenger, state Sen. Don Coram, will remain on the ballot in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

Denver District Court Judge Alex C. Myers rejected an attempt by four voters who live in the Western Slope-based district to eject Coram from the primary based on an argument that the Montrose Republican didn’t submit enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

Coram won a spot in the June 28 primary after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold determined that he submitted 1,568 valid signatures belonging to Republican residents of the district, but the group charged that 390 of the signatures shouldn’t have been accepted, alleging a variety of errors made by Coram’s campaign and election officials.

The lawsuit was filed on April 18 against Griswold, a Democrat, by David Laird, Dale Ruggles, Mandy Roberts and Bryon Roberts. Coram joined the lawsuit as an intervenor-respondent.

Colorado law requires that congressional candidates who petition onto the ballot gather 1,500 signatures. Alternatively, candidates can win a spot in their party’s primary by receiving support from delegates to a party assembly, which is how Boebert qualified.

According to court documents, two prominent Republican attorneys represented the voters: Suzanne Taheri, a former deputy secretary of state and unsuccessful 2020 Republican legislative candidate, and George Brauchler, a former district attorney who lost a 2018 run for attorney general.

In a 14-page ruling, Myers agreed that 19 signatures ruled valid by the Secretary of State’s Office’s Elections Division should have been rejected, leaving Coram with 1,544 valid signatures, still above the threshold.

Among the signatures the judge disallowed were a handful belonging to voters who hadn’t been registered as Republicans long enough to meet legal requirements, a few who signed after a petition circulator had completed an affidavit covering particular petition pages, and a voter who affixed an “X” in place of a signature.

The judge disagreed with the plaintiffs’ attempts to throw out signatures belonging to voters who signed the petition and then notarized pages that included their own signatures. He also rejected an argument that one of the petition circulators had listed an incorrect home address after hearing testimony from the woman, who lives in Wyoming.

A expert in forensic document examination called by the plaintiffs testified that the handwritten names and addresses on several adjacent signatures lines appeared to have been filled out by the same person, though the individual signatures appeared to be unique. After hearing testimony from a petition circulator who pointed out that a married couple had each signed the petition after one of the spouses had first filled in their information on both lines, the judge decided that there was no reason to invalidate the signatures.

Coram’s campaign manager told Colorado Politics that the ruling meant Boebert had “lost big.”

“Now, she finally will have to defend her nonexistent record of accomplishments for the 3rd CD to primary voters,” J.D. Key said in a text message. “We’re looking forward to it. Game on.”

Boebert’s campaign hasn’t responded to requests for comment about the lawsuit.

Three Democrats are running in their party’s primary in the district: Sol Sandoval, Alex Walker and Adam Frisch.

Griswold is supposed to certify the primary ballot by end of day Friday so county clerks can send their ballots to printers. Ballots start going in the mail to most Colorado voters on June 7 and are due back by 7 p.m. June 28.