A Scott County judge ruled Tuesday that DFL state Rep. Brad Tabke remains seated in House District 54A despite 20 absentee ballots going missing during the November general election.

District Judge Tracy Perzel wrote in her order that she found the testimony from voters who cast missing ballots to be sufficient evidence that “this election is not invalid,” and “neither an injunction nor special election is warranted or ordered.”

After the Shakopee-area seat went to a recount and Scott County officials said the 20 missing ballots likely were thrown away, Republicans filed a lawsuit, claiming there was no way to know who won with a margin of 14 votes and 20 missing ballots.

During the subsequent trial, 12 people whose ballots were lost testified. Six of them said they voted for Tabke, which would give him enough votes to be declared the winner even if the remaining eight votes were for Republican candidate Aaron Paul, Perzel wrote in Tuesday’s order, which could be appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Now with at least a temporary one-vote, 67-66 majority in the House, Republicans said they are considering not seating Tabke, who was first elected in 2022, regardless of the outcome of the case. Republicans also have continuously raised questions of whether the dozen trial witnesses were the “real voters” and whether more than 20 ballots are missing.

Whether Republicans have the power to unseat Tabke is still up in the air and comes down to the question of whether they have a quorum with 67 members of the 134-member House.

The House came out of the November election tied 67-67, and top leaders from both parties started to work out a power-sharing agreement that presumed a tie. But a Ramsey County judge late last month declared that a newly elected Democrat in another, heavily Democratic district in the Roseville area didn’t really live there.

That gave the GOP a 67-66 majority until a special election can take place in District 40B in two weeks.

“The underlying facts of the case remain unchanged: there were 20 ballots destroyed in a race decided by just 14 votes,” Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said in a Tuesday statement. “The judge relies on testimony from voters, while downplaying the inconsistencies and lack of absolute certainty that the correct set of voters was identified. Ultimately the Minnesota Constitution is clear that ‘Each house shall be the judge of the election returns and eligibility of its own members.’ We will evaluate this lengthy ruling and consider options in the coming days.”

Tabke and DFLers countered Demuth.

“The judge’s orders are clear and decisive. We won this election, and there’s no reason to doubt it. The judge has reconfirmed I am a member of this legislature,” Tabke said in a statement. “I’m ready to get to work today for Shakopee and for Minnesota. Leader Demuth must now unequivocally agree that the House GOP will not overturn the will of the 22,000 Shakopee voters AND agree to govern together for the people of Minnesota. We can start together today at noon if she wants. But if she’s not, I’m grateful my colleagues are willing to stand up for Shakopee with me.”

“The voters and the courts have both spoken, and it is time for Republicans to accept that they lost this election,” Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “Defying the courts and the voters to overturn an election would be an outrageous and illegitimate abuse of power. House Republicans should come back from the brink and abandon this outrageous partisan power grab. A partisan vote by Republican legislators to overturn this election cannot be tolerated and will not go unanswered.”

In reaction, House Democrats boycotted Tuesday’s first day of the legislative session in St. Paul.