A Denver District Court on Friday shut down a last-minute effort by three Republican candidates to keep unaffiliated voters from participating in Colorado’s June primary election.

The lawsuit seeks a ruling that Colorado’s semi-open primaries violate the Colorado Constitution and the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Denver District Court Judge Jon Jay Olafson declined to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Colorado secretary of state and county clerks from allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in next month’s primaries, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing and filed their claim unreasonably later than they could have.

The suit was filed by Ron Hanks, a former state representative and candidate in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District; Scott Bottoms, a state representative and candidate for governor; and David Willson, a candidate for attorney general.

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The state lawsuit comes shortly after a federal judge shot down a similar request from the Colorado Republican Party to block unaffiliated voters from participating in its primary. Plaintiffs in the Denver lawsuit say the federal court did not issue a ruling related to candidate-specific injury.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent declaration deeming the voter-approved Proposition 108 — a 2016 ballot measure that allows voters not registered with a political party to choose to vote in either major party’s partisan primary elections — unconstitutional. Olafson’s ruling on the preliminary injunction is a pre-trial order, and the case remains open.

The plaintiffs sought to “impose a nearly impossibly large burden” on the state after it already began mailing ballots to overseas voters, Olafson said. The candidates also lack standing because they are individual members of the Republican Party, and not the party itself.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs did not respond to a request for comment on the court’s ruling.

The National Republican Congressional Committee and Colorado’s four Republican members of Congress — U.S. Representatives Lauren Boebert of Windsor, Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction, Jeff Crank of Colorado Springs and Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton — intervened in the case as defendants seeking to oppose the candidates’ request to exclude unaffiliated voters.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, both Democrats, are named as defendants. The response attorneys for the defendants filed ahead of the hearing Thursday said a ruling in the plaintiffs favor would have upended Colorado’s “carefully crafted election administration procedures.”

A ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor could have resulted in unaffiliated voters in Colorado being unable to participate in the Republican or Democratic primary, since the lawsuit sought to bar unaffiliated voters from any major party primary.

The lawsuit argues the state law violates the “the associational rights” of political parties, affiliated members and candidates within the parties, and dilutes the voting strength of affiliated voters. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said unaffiliated voters participating in a Republican primary violates freedom of assembly protections guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Colorado’s 2026 primary election is on June 30.