Two Republican candidates disqualified them from running for Florida Senate seats, prompting legal challenges that affect election timelines. Another disqualified candidate, Gabriel Goddard, also plans to challenge the verdict against him. The disqualification leaves three Republicans and one Democrat competing for Senate seats in the upcoming special election. It is scheduled to begin on February 14th for overseas and military voters.
The Florida Department of Elections Bureau’s decision could affect the already tough timeline of the election, as it would disqualify two Republican candidates from running for the upcoming Senate seat. It has sex.
Influenced candidates – Florida Rep. Debbie Mayfield and Gabriel Goddard are both Indolimantic residents – pursuing separate legal action over a ruling by the agency that oversees elections in Florida. It’s there. They were about to run for Florida Senate seats in the 19th district, including Central and South Brevard Counties.
State officials say Mayfield is not eligible to run for the seat she held until November due to the period restrictions she is fighting for. Goddard said the state had not told him why he wasn’t eligible to run.
Mayfield filed a direct lawsuit with the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging that state election officials broke the law when they blocked special election qualifiers to fill Florida’s Senate seats.
The seats are currently being held by Randefine in Melbourne Beach. However, Fine submitted his resignation from that office, which came into effect on March 31, allowing him to run for an empty council seat in District 6, Florida. Fine won three Republican primary on January 28th, facing four other candidates in the special election on April 1st.
Five Republicans and one Democrat announced their candidates in the Senate District 19 race. However, Goddard and Mayfield were deemed ineligible to be run by the election division.
Mailing schedule for each vote
Under the Election Timeline section, votes from the April 1 Republican primary will be mailed to Republican voters in districts overseas or in the military by February 14th. Brevard.
Brevard County Election Supervisor Tim Bobanick said these votes should be printed and tested before that.
A massive mailing of votes to other Republican voters for the primary is scheduled for February 27th.
Bobanick said he will comply with election division decisions and judges hearing potential legal challenges for disqualification related to election timelines.
As Florida is known as the Closed Primary, only Republicans who can vote for the GOP Primary currently include Mercy Adkins of Grant Valcaria, Mark Reitner III of Suntree and Tim Thomas of Melbourne.
The winner of that primary will face West Melbourne Democrat Vance Arlens in the special general election on June 10th.
Currently, the Senate district has 401,017 registered voters. That’s nearly 89% of Brevard County’s 451,248 registered voters. The deadline for Republicans in districts registering to vote in the April 1 primary is for all voters in districts registering to vote in the June 10 general election. is.
Disputes beyond the time limit rules
Election Director Maria Matthews said the agency’s decision to deny Mayfield’s candidacy for Mayfield’s Senate seat is that Mayfield’s candidacy violates Florida’s term limit rules.
Mayfield is currently a member of the Florida House of Representatives in the 32nd district, representing Central Brevard County. She submitted an irrevocable letter of resignation from her House seat when she declared her candidacy for the Senate District 19 seats. His resignation will be effective on June 9th. Florida law requires elected officials to resign from their position to run for another seat if conditions overlap.
Mayfield served as a Senator from 2016 to 2024 before serving as a 19th District Senate seat until November when he was kicked out by term restrictions.
Mayfield claims that her short break in the Senate allowed her to run again for a Senate seat just restricted.
Mayfield cites the ruling in a 2018 case, including how the Florida Legislature term limits apply when there is a gap in tenure.
Mayfield also said that in that case, Florida Secretary of State was then “the role in the processing of qualified documents is purely minister” for his department, including examining eligible documents submitted by candidates. He said.
So Mayfield, in this week’s ruling, to disqualify Senate race, this week, by making a legal interpretation of provisions in the Florida Constitution that are effectively related to term restrictions, the district has to offer. They claim that they crossed and crossed boundaries.
In the 2018 case, GOP rivals challenged the eligibility of then-Florida Rep. Jamie Grant of Tampa to vote that year.
Grant was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2010, but due to another legal challenge in 2014, a special election was held in 2015, and he won because he didn’t sit down after the 2014 election. .
However, Grant has been out of the profession for five months and when his candidacy was challenged in 2018, a State Department lawyer should abandon the lawsuit as he had not been in office for eight years in a row. I insisted.
Mayfield said this week that the election division ruling to disqualify her was sold by Gov. Ron DeSantis to support President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign. He claims that it was.
“Today, Governor Desantis used administrative agencies to punish me for supporting Donald J. Trump for the President,” Mayfield said in a statement issued Wednesday. President Trump. ”
The governor’s news office did not immediately answer questions about Mayfield’s claim that DeSantis was retaliating against her.
Mayfield’s lawsuit asks the Secretary of State to “force the court to immediately admit that she is immediately recognized as a qualified candidate for the SD 19 special election.”
Secretary of State Code Bird, along with Matthews and Bobanick, has been appointed as the respondent in Mayfield’s lawsuit.
Goddard will also challenge the ruling.
Meanwhile, Goddard said he is keeping his lawyers to challenge his disqualification – the reason he hadn’t received it by Thursday afternoon.
Goddard said Mayfield “I agree that he should not be unqualified to serve in the Senate, but that DeSantis also directs the election department to make these inconsistent and unstable decisions. I agree.”
Referring to his own candidacy, Goddard asked, “the optics that disqualify the only candidate of color in Black History Month.”
Goddard is executive director of the US Space Walk of Fame Foundation in Titusville and vice-chairman of the Brevard Museum.
Adkins is one of three Republicans eligible to participate in the Senate District 19 vote and is preparing her own legal action ahead of the election decision, with Mayfield taking the Senate seat He said he was trying to be qualified to run for the
Adkins argues there was a contradiction in the voting language language of the 1992 constitutional amendment, which established terminology for the Florida Senate and House members, compared to its subsequent addition to the Florida Constitution. She said it is clear that Mayfield is not eligible to run for the Senate in this special election due to voters’ intentions in approving the amendment.
Adkins on Thursday said she will file a brief for what is called “friends of the court” and supports the Secretary of State’s position in denying Mayfield’s location in the vote.
Adkins called DeSantis and Byrd “stood proud” by not qualifying for the vote and “stopping for the Florida Constitution.” Adkins said Mayfield “avoided” Florida time limit rules and called them “a blatant violation of the intent of the time limit.”
USA Today Network-Florida Capital Bureau reporter Gray Rohrer contributed to this story.
Dave Berman is Florida’s business editor today. Please contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com (@bydaveberman x, www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54).
