The Illinois Supreme Court dropped the state’s appeal of a judge’s decision that state lawmakers were wrong to change the rules in the middle of the current election cycle.

The ruling means the 14 candidates who joined in the lawsuit have the right to appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot. The lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, which worked with the Illinois Policy Institute.

The law was hastily passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed by Pritzker in the middle of the current election cycle to ban “slating,” a process by which a political party could nominate a candidate after the primary election if nobody ran. The process was an alternative to leaving the race uncontested. While the law will apply to future elections, it was halted for the current election and voters in 14 Illinois House districts gained choices.

“This is bigger than just, ‘Oh, I put all this time, energy, funds, toward this.’ The fact they can try to pull this in the middle of the process is more devastating,” lead plaintiff and candidate Leslie Collazo said. “The greater cost is to allow this to happen. To not give people an option to put someone in office who will be a voice for them. I think people deserve better than that.”