PORTLAND — The question of whether Libertarians will be recognized as an official political party in Maine is in a federal judge’s hands after the conclusion of a case against the state Tuesday in Portland.

At issue is a lawsuit by the nonprofit Libertarian Party of Maine Inc. that challenges Secretary of State Matt Dunlap’s ruling in December 2015 that the organization’s attempt to become a recognized political party in Maine failed. The organization thought it registered nearly 6,500 Mainers as Libertarians — more than the threshold of 5,000 required in law — but the state invalidated nearly 2,000 of them.

After closing arguments Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Judge John Woodcock now has the issue under consideration and will render a decision in the coming weeks. The timing is important because part of what the Libertarians are seeking in their request for injunctive relief is that they be granted until May 31 to gather more registrations.

The crux of the Libertarians’ argument is that the state’s deadline for registrations — Dec. 1 in the year before an election year — is too early and that the five-day deadline for the state to decide about the success of the effort is too short.

John Branson, attorney for the Libertarians, argued that setting the deadline six months before Maine’s primary elections makes the process unconstitutionally difficult.

“To even suggest that the state has the interest of minor parties and their ability to qualify for ballot access in Maine when they made these laws is laughable,” said Branson during closing arguments. “The people who make these laws are Democrats and Republicans. It is no secret why third parties and minor parties have such difficulty competing in our democracy.”

Branson cited cases from other states where courts have struck down political registration deadlines.

Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner said the Libertarians knew the rules and the deadlines when they launched their effort. She said organizers are to blame for its failure, not the state.

“We wouldn’t be here if they had stayed on top of the process and if they had taken some very basic steps, such as keeping a list in regards to disputed voter names, such as keeping a copy of the [registration] cards so they could follow up more easily, such as having the people they hired to enroll voters give the voter a simple slip of paper saying if your application isn’t accepted by the town, you’ll get a notice and if you get a notice, please call us and we’ll assist you,” said Gardiner. “They didn’t do any of those things.”

Woodcock agreed that the Libertarians’ registration drive, which was led by Stavros Mendros and his firm, Olympic Consulting, was foiled largely because of messy handwriting on voter registration cards.

“You wouldn’t have made it here [to court] if people had been legible, and literally as I look through this, if handwriting and penmanship were still taught as opposed to people assuming that everybody’s going to have access to a computer and type, you would have gone over the 5,000 [registration] limit,” he said.

Branson has asked for a decision from the court by April 15 but said Tuesday that Woodcock has indicated a decision could take longer than that.