She was the party candidate in several elections. In many of the early elections involving the Independence Party Lerman battled with the Board of Elections to gain ballot status for party candidates on Staten Island, with the Board consistently claiming Lerman's petitions failed to abide by various rules. Lerman generally succeeded in getting her candidates on the ballot by going to court. Finally, in 1999 the Richmond County Independence Party tried to cross-endorse a Democrat, John Sollazo for an office. The Board rejected Lerman's petitions on the grounds she did not live in the district in which Sollazo was running. She took the case to federal court pro se, and Judge Eugene Nickerson ruled the requirement that the petitioner live in the district was irrational. The Board of Elections appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court. At this point the Brennan Center for Justice, a division of the School of Law of New York University, stepped in and became Lerman's legal representative. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld Nickerson's ruling, forcing a change of law not just in New York State, but in eighteen other states as well. Lerman received an Anti-Corruption Award from the statewide Independence Party for this accomplishment.