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State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Glendale) cemented his post as Queens Republican Party chairman last week when a Supreme Court Justice handed down a decision rejecting claims that he rigged his election at the county convention.

Bart Haggerty, a Republican committee member who ran against Maltese for chairman, filed a petition in November arguing that the longtime senator used his influence to illegally disqualify his opponent’s proxy votes. With those votes, Haggerty contended he had sufficient support to beat Maltese.

Judge Charles Thomas said in his ruling that the votes were disqualified consistent with both the party’s rules and state law. In a lopsided decision, Thomas found that none of Haggerty’s claims had merit.

“Haggerty has failed to identify any proxy which was not properly rejected, and has failed to demonstrate that the Committee rules did not warrant the invalidation of those proxies for the reasons given by the Committee,” Thomas wrote.

Proxies are documents that reflect the vote of committee members who cannot be present at a convention or meeting. To be considered legitimate, proxy votes are subject to a number of complicated regulations, such as being properly dated and submitted to party officials in a relevant district.

Haggerty argued that 223 proxies of his supporters had been invalidated. During a Nov. 29 hearing, Committee lawyers presented all the disputed proxy votes and provided reasons for their disqualification, Thomas wrote.

Maltese said he believed Haggerty made a critical mistake by contesting too many proxy votes instead of sticking to his most convincing examples. When the judge found that many proxies in evidence were handled correctly, he was less likely to add validity to the rest of Haggerty’s arguments, he said.

“By putting in claims that look frivolous, they ended up getting a decision, which may have had some pros and cons, that instead was 100 percent for our position,” Maltese said.

The court also reaffirmed the practice of using weighted votes in committee elections. Under the current system, committee member votes are counted in proportion to the turnout in their Assembly district during the last gubernatorial election.

Haggerty said he believes Thomas grossly oversimplified or simply ignored the fundamental legal questions at stake in the dispute. The slight, three-page opinion literally does not provide enough space to address the issues thoroughly, he said.

“There’s no substance in that decision,” Haggerty said, adding he plans to appeal. “Anyone who was at the meeting knows what went on there. Serf cheated, and that’s the bottom line.”

Bart Haggerty and his brother John, both staunch Bloomberg supporters, tried to stage a coup at the last Queens County Republican Party convention to overthrow Maltese, who has been chairman for the last 10 years. The meeting turned into a virtual circus of loud yelling and heated objections as word of the proxy disqualifications reached the floor.

The conflict threatened to split the Queens Republicans for a time, Maltese said, but even before this ruling Haggerty supporters have been slowly drifting back to rejoin the larger party organization by attending events and meetings. “That’s a good sign,” Maltese said.

Haggerty, on the other hand, remains unconvinced. “I think that’s really wishful thinking on his part,” he said. “This was not about me or this race, this was about eight years of failed leadership. If he thinks this is going away because he won a bogus election, he has something coming.”