Green Party gubernatorial hopeful Butch Ware will have to run a write-in campaign after a federal judge Monday blocked his attempt to add his name to ballots, saying it was too late to intervene in an election where voting is already underway.

Ware was left off of the official ballot listing candidates for governor after Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office said he’d failed to properly file tax returns, as required by a 2019 state law. Ware challenged that decision in Sacramento Superior Court, arguing that the law itself was unconstitutional and that he’d been denied an opportunity to properly fix errors in the returns.

After a Sacramento judge ruled against Ware in March, he appealed the case in federal court, arguing the law was unconstitutional and requesting the court force Weber’s office to add Ware’s name to the ballot.

“California cannot condition a candidate’s access to the gubernatorial primary ballot on the submission of personal tax returns,” Ware’s attorneys wrote in their motion. “This requirement violates the First and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

But in his order Monday, Judge William Shubb of the Eastern District of California said the motion came too late. Citing higher court precedent, Shubb said it was clear the election was already underway and interfering in it now would cause hardship to voters who’d already cast ballots.