PARSIPPANY - Democrat Pulkit Desai was declared the winner of the Parsippany mayoral race in mid-November when all mail-in ballots were counted.

And on Dec. 23 - more than a month later - his victory was reconfirmed in state Superior Court. That's when Judge Noah Franzblau dismissed what was the third challenge to the election results by incumbent Republican Mayor James Barberio.

What makes things even worse for Barberio is that the judge ordered the mayor's campaign to pay Desai's legal fees. At the moment, they are undetermined.

The ruling caps an almost unimaginable election season for Democrats in Morris County.

Mikie Sherrill won the county, Dems won an Assembly seat in LD-25 for the first time in almost 50 years, they "flipped" a number of council seats and now, their win in the county's largest town has been confirmed. Earlier, Democrats won two council seats to take control of the governing body.

In his ruling, the judge noted that the burden of proof lies with the petitioner - in this case, Barberio - to demonstrate that not only were "illegal votes" cast, but for whom they were cast.

In the case at hand, Desai won by 80 votes.

Barberio's suit seeking to overturn Desai's victory made four points - illegal votes received, legal votes rejected, mail-in ballot irregularities and "undervotes" and "overvotes" not conforming with the intent of the voters.

A very significant statement in the judge's ruling reads as follows:

"While petitioner's assertions may be based upon 'belief,' it has been confirmed that petitioner's assertions are not based on any information."

One argument lawyers for Barberio made that was not dismissed was the mayor's contention that three "deceased" voters cast ballots. That means that they sent in mail-in ballots, but died before the Nov. 4 election.

Also not dismissed was a claim that a mail-in ballot was improperly rejected.

Those were four ballots, and as the judge noted, they had no impact on an election decided by 80 votes.

Desai was at the Morris Dems' holiday party a week or so ago and expressed confidence he would prevail in the legal fight. That has now happened.