DES MOINES - Polk County District Court Judge David May has issued a ruling regarding gubernatorial candidate Ron Corbett's appeal to last week's decision by the State Objection Panel to reject his nomination petitions.

Judge May's decision states: "By striking through – or crossing off – the signatures at issue, Mr. Corbett's campaign deleted those signatures from his nomination papers. The Panel was correct, therefore, in refusing to count those signatures in Mr. Corbett's favor." Mr. Corbett's petition has been dismissed.

"I want to thank Judge David May for issuing his ruling in a timely manner and upholding the Objection Panel's decision. My office is instructing county auditors to proceed in preparing all the ballots for the June 5 primary election," Secretary of State Paul Pate said. "My advice to all candidates in the future, as we recommend in the Candidate's Guide, is to collect significantly more petition signatures than is required, make sure all your paperwork is filled out correctly, and submit your petitions early in the filing process."

The complete judge's ruling is available at this link.

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