Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis was allowed back on the ballot for the state Senate in New Jersey on Tuesday, The Star-Ledger reported.
A federal appeals court overturned Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno's April ruling, which said Lewis, a Democrat, was ineligible to run for the state Senate seat because he did not meet the residency requirement.
Guadagno said Lewis "did not yet own his home in New Jersey, did not otherwise live in New Jersey, did not file his taxes in New Jersey, was not registered to vote in New Jersey and did not have his business in New Jersey." The state has a four-year residency requirement for candidates.
Lewis said in court filings that he had purchased two homes in New Jersey in 2005. But Guadagno wrote in her decision that one home was purchased for his mother and that Lewis did not sign a contract for his own home in Medford until 2007.
Tuesday's decision came days before the deadline to print ballots, The Star-Ledger reported.
Lewis, 50, said on April 11 that he would challenge Republican state Sen. Dawn Addiego for the seat covering the east side of southern New Jersey's Burlington County, which leans Republican.
Lewis, who has never run for office, grew up in the Burlington County town of Willingboro and has lived in Los Angeles and Houston in recent years.
The former track-and-field star won four gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, two gold and a silver medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, two gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and one gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
