(UTV|COLOMBO) – A US court has cleared Sri Lankan born Krishanti Vignarajah to contest for the post of Governor in Maryland’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, following a lawsuit by a Baltimore County man who sought to remove her name from the ballot, the Washington Post reported.
Douglas Horn alleged that the time Vignarajah spent living and voting in the District should disqualify her because Maryland requires that its Governor be a resident of the state for five years before the election.
Judge Alison L. Asti denied the request “in less than 30 minutes” because Vignarajah has been a validly registered voter in Maryland for more than five years, her campaign said.
Vignarajah, who worked as a Washington lawyer and for the Obama administration, also was registered in the District and voted there from 2010 through 2014.
Although she registered to vote in Maryland in 2006, she voted in the state for the first time in the 2016 General Election.
She listed her residence as in the District on Government documents as recently as May 2016.
Vignarajah, a former policy director for Michelle Obama, is the second candidate in the crowded gubernatorial primary to go to court on a ballot-related matter.
Valerie Ervin, who replaced the late Kevin Kamenetz at the top of the ticket after his unexpected death last month, tried to force the State Board of Elections to reprint the ballots to show her running for Governor, not lieutenant Governor.
A judge ruled that the state did not have the time to do so.
Late Tuesday, Ervin dropped out of the Governor’s race and endorsed Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III. Early voting begins Thursday, and the primary is June 26.
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