D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) will be on the ballot in the mayor’s race for the June 21 primary, following an unsuccessful attempt by fellow candidate Councilmember Robert White (D-At Large) to slim down the field that voters will choose from.

The D.C. Board of Elections ruled on Friday afternoon that Trayon White had collected 2,138 valid signatures from registered voters, 138 more than what’s needed to get on the ballot for the mayoral primary. That’s just less than half the 4,391 signatures he initially submitted to the elections board.

Earlier this month, Luz Martinez, Robert White’s campaign manager, had challenged more than 2,700 of Trayon White’s signatures, saying that many of them came from voters who listed their wrong address or were not registered to vote at all, or had been collected by petition circulators who are not D.C. residents. Under D.C. law, circulators have to be residents, and if not they have to register with the elections board.

Last week the elections board reported that an initial review had found that Trayon White had 2,199 valid signatures. But on Friday Christy White, an attorney for Martinez and Robert White, said there were still more signatures they had concerns about and wanted the board to scrutinize. They also brought up questions about the residency status of five of Trayon White’s 25 petition circulators.

“In essence, every other signature… has been found to be invalid. Enough additional signatures remain that are invalid to deny [Trayon] White access to the ballot,” she said. “We are not dealing with a political novice. We are dealing with a sitting councilmember who has gone through this process twice before. I would think we would hold him to a higher standard.”

Speaking in his own defense, Trayon White said his campaign had collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. And he said that any issues that existed with addresses that people listed had more to do with the poverty in the ward he represents.

“It is a fact that we met the threshold. This seems to me like a witch hunt. We knew that we had to deal with a lot of residents with housing insecurity. We went above and beyond to make sure we had enough signatures to qualify,” he said. “This is an assault on democracy, and voter suppression.”

Ultimately, the board sided with Trayon White. “You don’t have to clear the bar by [much] more than the bar,” said board member Michael Gill, recognizing that White only got 138 signatures over the threshold.

In a statement earlier this month, Robert White said he was challenging Trayon White’s signatures because he said the issues his campaign had found pointed to a lack of attention to detail. “This is a moment when we need a leader who will bring all the wards of our city together and effectively manage a $20 billion budget to solve the big problems facing our residents,” he said.

Robert White has a clear motivation to try to bump his rival off the ballot: With Trayon White in the race, Robert White’s path to defeating Mayor Muriel Bowser is more complicated. A Washington Post poll conducted in February found Bowser getting support from 47% of registered Democrats, with Robert White and Trayon White virtually tied, with 19% and 17%, respectively.

According to recent campaign finance reports, Bowser has more than $3 million in her campaign war chest, while Robert White has just over $800,000 and Trayon White has about $280,000. All three candidates are receiving public financing.

Regardless of how the mayoral election turns out, relations between Robert and Trayon White have now seemingly turned frosty. In a tweet Friday afternoon, Trayon White directed his anger at Robert White. “[You] should be ashamed of that weak witch hunt you went on to silence democracy of brown and Black people. I thought you were better than that slim. Just drop out now, it’s up!” he wrote.

In the D.C. Council’s At-Large race, the field of six candidates was slimmed down to four after the board found that candidates Bradley Thomas and Leniqua’dominique Jenkins had not collected enough signatures to get on the ballot.