A Denver District Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit by a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate from Colorado who asked that his name be added to the June primary ballot even though he received less than 1% of delegate votes at the party’s state assembly.

Erik Underwood argued that he was unfairly denied a spot in the primary after encountering “irregularities” as Democrats scrambled to conduct party meetings remotely amid the growing coronavirus pandemic sweeping the state in March and April.

But Judge Kandace C. Gerdes on Tuesday rejected Underwood’s request that the courts declare that he qualified to seek the nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican running for a second term.

The ruling leaves former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff as the sole Democrat to emerge from the state party’s assembly, which was held online on April 18.

According to the Democratic Party, Romanoff received 89.7% of the delegate vote, making him the only candidate to meet the 30% threshold established in state law. Another candidate who went through the assembly process, university professor and former congressional candidate Stephany Rose Spaulding, got 9.4% of the vote. Underwood, who ran for governor in the last election, brought up the rear with 0.9% of the vote.

Underwood’s lawyer argued that a series of slights and missteps by Democratic officials in the county assembly process that preceded the state assembly – including excluding Underwood from some of the meetings, denying him the opportunity to speak at the state delegates, leaving his name off one county’s Senate preference poll and not informing him that a candidate video he produced was too long – put his client at a disadvantage.

After hearing on Monday from attorneys representing Underwood, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll, however, the judge decided that Underwood hadn’t made his case.

“Noticeably absent from the evidence presented to the Court was corroboration that the irregularities (Underwood) complains of were not suffered by multiple candidates,” she wrote in an 8-page decision, adding that Underwood “also did not present evidence as to how the irregularities directly or indirectly impacted him and the voting.”

“Democracy took a step backwards,” Underwood said in a text message after the judge’s ruling. He added that he intends to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging election fraud. 

Carroll told Colorado Politics that she stands by the numerous party officials who ran assemblies during the public health emergency.

“Not only did we follow the law, but we repeatedly did much more than what was required to ensure transparency and fairness for both the delegates and the candidates,” she said in a written statement. “Our small staff, local parties, and our team of volunteers deserve our thanks and appreciation for all they did under unprecedented global pandemic circumstances.”

The only other Democrat who has secured a spot in the June 30 primary is former Gov. John Hickenlooper, who qualified by petition, though another candidate is pursuing a case in federal court to have her name added to the ballot.

Following a loss in the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this week, nonprofit leader Lorena Garcia is alleging she should qualify for the primary, even though she didn’t collect the legally required number of petition signatures.

Griswold is required to send a certified list of primary candidates to county clerks before midnight tonight. Ballots start going in the mail to most Colorado voters on June 9.