The Associated Press

A federal appeals court Friday rejected a request that it order Ohio to place a third-party candidate on the Nov. 2 ballot to challenge incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, in the 1st Congressional District.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court's ruling last week denying David Lawrence an order that would place him on the ballot as the candidate of the Socialist Equality Party. Lawrence is a high school mathematics teacher from Dayton.

His lawyer, Robert Newman, said he would talk with Lawrence about whether to ask the full appeals court to rehear the case or to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chabot and a Democratic opponent, Greg Harris, are on the ballot in the 1st District.

It includes most of the city of Cincinnati and more than half of Hamilton County, with the remainder of the city and the county within the 2nd District.

Lawrence declared his candidacy on March 1 this year, but failed to include the necessary nominating petition and signatures in support, election officials said. Lawrence later gathered the signatures and submitted his nominating petition to the Hamilton County Board of Elections, which rejected it as having been submitted too late under state law.

Lawrence sued in federal court to challenge that decision. Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott rejected his request for an order that would have forced Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to include Lawrence on the November ballot.

Friday, appeals judges Boyce Martin Jr., R. Guy Cole Jr. and Julia Gibbons also rejected his request. The judges said that Lawrence could still promote himself as a write-in candidate for the ballot.