Story highlights At issue was whether Kasich had filed the requisite number of valid signatures to get onto the Pennsylvania Republican primary ballot

The student and Rubio supporter behind the effort dropped his efforts to challenge Kasich

Villanova, Pennsylvania (CNN) The ballot challenge in Pennsylvania that threatened to derail John Kasich's rising presidential campaign has been dropped.

Nathaniel Rome, the chairman of Pennsylvania Students for Rubio and a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, has decided to drop the challenge to Kasich's standing on the ballot, according to Chris Bravacos, Marco Rubio's Pennsylvania state chairman and the brother of the lawyer representing Rome in the case.

The decision to drop the challenge was first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

At issue was whether Kasich had filed the requisite number of valid signatures to get onto the Pennsylvania Republican primary ballot. Rome contended Kasich submitted more than 800 invalid signatures in the 2,184 submitted by the Ohio governor's presidential campaign. The Pennsylvania secretary of state certified Kasich's signatures, placing him on the ballot. But shortly after the deadline for challenges, Rome submitted his petition.

Kasich's lawyers, at a hearing on Rome's challenge, actually conceded that 192 signatures were, in fact, not valid. But the missed deadline for the petition -- by 13 minutes -- served as the backbone of their argument that the challenge should be thrown out. Kasich's campaign repeatedly said it was "100% certain" that Kasich would remain on the ballot and accused Rubio's campaign of masterminding the effort to get him kicked off.

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