Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has disqualified one of Ohio’s two Libertarian U.S. Senate candidates from running in the May primary election, ruling in favor of a complaint from a Libertarian activist.

LaRose said Jeffrey Kanter failed to include enough valid voter signatures with his candidate paperwork, agreeing with the protest filed by the Libertarian activist that some signatures initially accepted by elections officials should have been rejected.

The ruling guarantees that William Redpath, a financial professional from the Toledo area, will get the Libertarian nomination for U.S. Senate. Kanter’s name will still appear on the ballot, since the decision came after a state deadline for finalizing the ballot, according to a LaRose spokesperson. But ballots will contain a notice informing voters of Kanter’s disqualification, and any votes he receives won’t be counted.

The dispute has drawn attention beyond a typical third-party ballot challenge. Some Libertarians say the circumstances surrounding Kanter’s candidacy raised concerns about possible outside political involvement in the race, which also includes Republican Sen. Jon Husted and Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Those concerns stem from several factors, including Kanter’s recent work on a Republican political project, his use of paid, out-of-state political consultants and petitioners to qualify for the ballot and his subsequent lack of an active campaign or communication with party leaders.

It’s not uncommon for major political parties to meddle with third-party candidates’ slates because of the potential they have to siphon votes and serve as political spoilers.

“While I’m stopping short of alleging a formal conspiracy, it is hard to ignore Florida-based Republican operatives running a signature drive for a Libertarian primary,” Kristen Wichers, who filed the protest, said in a statement after LaRose’s ruling. “It raises obvious concerns about meddling. If the Republican Party disagrees with that assessment, they are welcome to step forward and condemn this fraud.”

More on the details of the protest

Statewide candidates must turn in 500 voter signatures to qualify to run. Kanter turned in 1,534 signatures, of which 609 were found to be valid by elections officials.

Wichers challenged 285 of those 609 signatures on a variety of grounds, including allegations that some were collected by someone with a recent election fraud conviction and others were collected by a pair of registered Republicans from Florida who traveled to Ohio to support Kanter’s campaign. State law says petition circulators must belong to the same political party as the candidates they are working for and must not have an election fraud conviction.

A lawyer hired by LaRose to hear the complaint agreed that 216 of the 285 questioned signatures were invalid, which should drop Kanter below the 500-signature threshold.

LaRose, a Republican, wrote in his official ruling that he agreed with the hearing officer’s conclusions.

Kanter challenged the complaint and fought a subpoena issued by Wichers and her lawyer seeking information to support her case. But he didn’t attend a quasi-judicial hearing last week in Columbus to review Wichers’ case.

The hearing officer found any testimony Kanter could have offered was irrelevant to the case.