Two candidates hung on to their spots on the 5th Congressional District primary ballot on Thursday, but one was bumped off when Cook County election officials issued rulings on several ballot petition challenges in the race to fill Rahm Emanuel’s vacant seat.

A county election board found that Democrat Roger Thompson III has only 494 valid petition signatures—far short of the 927 he needed to run in the March 3 primary.

“It’s not easy for anybody to break into politics,” said Thompson, who struggled through the petition objection process without the help of a lawyer. “You have to have the insider knowledge, and I don’t have any insider knowledge. That’s why I think I’m a better candidate than most.”

Thompson, a 40-year-old real estate agent, didn’t go without a fight.

He even requested that the chairman of the Cook County Officer’s Electoral Board, which rules on petition challenges, go through the 24-minute process of counting all of Thompson’s objections to challenges lodged against his petitions line by line, until it was proved that he didn’t have enough valid signatures to stay on the ballot.

“Fifty percent of me says, ‘Yeah, I got a fair shake,’ and the other 50 percent of me is disappointed and says, ‘I didn’t get a fair shake.’ But I’m still digesting all the facts.”

Thompson said he still plans to run as a write-in candidate.

Transit Thompson’s was one of five petitions that were challenged in the race to fill the vacancy created when Emanuel became President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

Fellow Democrat Paul Bryar acknowledged on Sunday that volunteers for his campaign were behind three of the objections, including Thompson’s. Those volunteers also objected to the nominating papers of Democrats Pete Dagher, Charlie Wheelan.

Officials with Dagher’s campaign announced Tuesday that he would drop out of the race because he likely wouldn’t survive the challenge to his nominating papers.

But Wheelan retained his place atop the primary ballot, overcoming a comprehensive challenge that even questioned the validity of his wife’s signature.

“It seems like a form of harassment, but we’re glad we’ll remain at the top of the ballot,” Wheelan campaign manager Patrick Mogge said. “It’s frustrating that allegations were made, but I think it made us stronger. It increased interest and helped us raise some money and get our supporters revved up.”

The elections panel also ruled that Republican Rosanna Pulido, who founded the Illinois Minuteman Project, can stay on the ballot. She had been challenged by the leader of a group that opposes her hard-line immigration policies.

“[These challenges] are always malicious attacks to get people off the ballot,” Pulido said. “The interesting thing to me was that they … even threw my father’s signature out. I live with my father, and he was not happy about that, either.”

The board could decide Monteagudo’s fate on Monday, when it’s set to hold another hearing.

On a separate note, Green Party candidate Alan Auguston announced that he will bow out of next month’s primary to deal with a family medical emergency. Auguston ran unsuccessfully for Emanuel’s congressional post in the 2008 general election.

Twenty-two people remain in the race: Twelve Democrats, six Republicans and four Green Party candidates.