Chicago election commissioners today voted to keep Rahm Emanuel on the Feb. 22 Chicago mayoral ballot.

The 3-0 vote came just hours after a hearing officer recommended that the former White House chief of staff should remain in the mayor’s race because he meets the city residency requirement.

“It was a difficult case to manage. For me, it was not a difficult case to decide,” said Richard Cowen, an elections commissioner.

The election board, however, is not expected to have final say on the issue. The losing objectors have a week to appeal the board’s decision to the Cook County Circuit Court.  The case could wind its way through the court system, including the Illinois Court of Appeals and the Illinois Supreme Court, for weeks.

“My goal is to get this through the courts as soon as possible,” said Burt Odelson, lead attorney for the objectors, to Emanuel’ attorneys after the commissioners rendered their decision.

The vote came after hearing officer Joseph Morris’ 69-page recommendation was issued at nearly 2 a.m. and the board opened its meeting at 9 a.m. in a Cook County building basement.

“It has not been established that the candidate, a resident of Chicago, abandoned his status as such a resident,” Morris wrote of Emanuel’s time as President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff. “In any event, his absence from Illinois during that time in question is excused, for purposes of the safeguarding and retention of his status as a resident and elector, by express operation of Illinois law.”

During today’s hearing, Burt Odelson, the attorney for the lead objectors, said Morris’ recommendation turns the law of residency on its head.

“This (69-page) recommendation, I’m trying to guard my words, is shallow. It’s shallow in reciting the facts,” Odelson said.

“I was extremely disappointed we had to wait that long for such a poor product. This wasn’t a difficult case. It only became difficult because of all of the objectors.”

All of Emanuel’s actions — including applying for a homeowner’s exemption, and amending his 2009 tax returns to declare he was an Illinois resident — each came after Mayor Richard Daley announced he would not seek re-election, Odelson said.

Odelson declared Emanuel’s moves as “self-serving action(s) taken to bolster his residency.”

Emanuel’s lawyers cited previous case law and Morris’ recommendation to bolster its case that Emanuel has a right to remain on the ballot. The objectors, Michael Kasper said, presented a weak argument.

(Read More: Chicago Tribune)