ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - A New York judge on Monday dismissed a challenge to Canadian-born Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run in the state’s Republican presidential primary election next month, saying the challengers had missed a key deadline for filing. Two New York residents, Barry Korman, 81, of Manhattan and William Gallo, 85, of Manhasset, Long Island, on Feb. 19 filed the petition to block Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, from getting onto the April 19 ballot, saying his birth in the Canadian province of Alberta makes him ineligible to be president.  State law requires that a petition challenging eligibility be filed within three days of when a candidate files to be placed on the ballot. Korman and Gallo filed their petition more than two weeks after Cruz filed his paperwork to get on the ballot, the judge said. Weinstein said at an earlier hearing that the case could cause “chaos” if it went ahead.  The case was one of several similar challenges to Cruz’s eligibility to run for the White House - including suits in Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas. The Illinois suit was dismissed last week on a technicality. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly brought up questions about whether Cruz meets the constitutional requirement to be president.  The Constitution says that to be president, a person must be a “natural-born citizen” of the United States. Cruz has argued that he is eligible to run because of his mother’s U.S. citizenship, and many legal experts say it is unlikely any judge in the United States would block his presidential bid. Cruz’s father is a Cuban immigrant. A lawyer for the objectors, Roger Bernstein, said “an appeal is likely.”  (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Leslie Adler) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.
NY judge dismisses attempt to block Canada-born Cruz from state's ballot 