Democrats in Florida have flipped their first seat in the midterm elections months before the November elections.

The potential Democratic pickup comes as incumbent Republican Rep. Paula Stark lost her bid to appear on the ballot after missing the deadline to submit required candidate paperwork.

Stark failed to submit Form 6, a public disclosure of financial interests form, which she said was the fault of her campaign treasurer, Joel Davis. In her lawsuit to get back on the ballot, Stark said Davis had submitted the form in the last hour, but a clerk accidentally returned it to him, so it was never filed, according to Florida Politics.

However, several state employees say they never received the form.

Leon Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes believed the state officials working in the hour before the deadline who told the court that if they had received the paperwork, they would’ve stamped it.

“They all testified consistently that after 11:30 (a.m.), the clerks no longer performed any check of the papers,” Hawkes wrote in a ruling earlier this month. “Instead, they just received, stamped, and later, if time allowed, handed copies of the stamped forms back as courtesy copies. The streamlined, no-review, process was to ensure those that wanted to qualify could before the noon deadline.”

Stark’s form presented to the court was not stamped.

“It is much more likely that [Davis] did not actually turn in the Form 6,” Hawkes wrote. “In any case, the Court does not credit the story of DOE staff immediately returning the Form 6, the Form 6 was not turned in before the noon deadline, and Petitioner did not show that she qualified for HD 47.”

The Florida Democratic Party also intervened to ask the judge to block Stark from the ballot, arguing that it is unfair to other candidates who followed the rules.

“Floridians work hard every day and follow the rules, but Republicans like Paula Stark think they’re above the law,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a statement.

“Now, after hundreds of candidates throughout the state managed to file their paperwork on time to appear on the ballot, Paula Stark is wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit due to her own mistake while her constituents are being neglected,” Fried continued. “This is another reflection of the chaos and incompetence that defines Republican rule in Tallahassee and has led to an affordability crisis that is squeezing the budgets of working families and seniors across Florida.”

Hawkes denied Stark’s request to be placed back on the ballot and gave her seven days to respond to why her case should not be dismissed. Stark did not respond by the deadline, and Hawkes moved to close the case.

“No response was forwarded to chambers,” Hawkes wrote in his order last week. “Instead, Petitioner submitted a motion for reconsideration which is denied by a separate order.”

Stark flipped the seat from blue to red in 2022. With her off the ballot, only two Democrats are left to compete for the seat, Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves, which means Florida Democrats will flip the seat.