Washington, DC (CNN) The Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon denied a petition to include other Republican candidates other than President Donald Trump on the state's GOP primary ballot.

After hearing oral arguments in the morning, the court ruled that the petition, which had been filed by by a local small businessman looking to vote for his preferred candidate, "lacked merit" and "denied" the lawsuit. The court didn't issue a formal opinion in the order, citing the need to quickly render a decision so that early voting preparation could begin.

Jim Martin filed the lawsuit in December over Minnesota's March 3 primary, objecting to a new state law allowing party chairs to determine who appears on primary ballots.

In October 2019, the state's Republican chairwoman excluded local resident and Republican presidential nominee hopeful Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente's name from being printed on Minnesota's Super Tuesday ballots. She instead preferred that only Trump's name be on the ballot.

The petition sought to order Secretary of State Steve Simon to print De La Fuente's name on the ballot, which would allow Martin to be able to cast his vote for De La Fuente, according to court papers.

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