TALHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday bids Rep. Debbie Mayfield to compete in a special election for the Senate seat, and mistakenly blocked state election officials from appearing on the ballot. .
Unanimously, Mayfield’s candidacy in the Senate district of Brevard County does not violate the state constitution’s term limits. The Secretary of State also said he has stepped over his “minister” role in determining whether Mayfield properly qualifies for the vote.
The opinion said the court “is confident that the secretary will immediately comply with this opinion by 3pm on Friday.”
The case centers around the state’s term limit laws and how it was applied to Mayfield, who is about to return to the Senate seat he left in November after eight years of service. Mayfield of R-Melbourne was elected to the House of Representatives in November, but decided to look for a Senate seat after Sen. R-Brevard County submitted his resignation to run in the Capitol special election.
The state district under Bird said Mayfield was unable to run for the Senate. However, the main opinion of the Supreme Court, written by Judge Jamie Grosshans, stated, “We refuse to interpret the Secretary’s interpretation of constitutional provisions.”
That part of the constitution says to the offices of senators and others that “we cannot appear in the vote for reelection.” He must have served in that office for eight years in a row. ”
Grosshands wrote that if Bird’s interpretation “snatched the phrase “sequential years” from the remaining provisions and succeeded in the next election, Mayfield concluded that he “served” for 12 consecutive years at SD 19. It’s there. This interpretation does not take into account words in the context. ”
“Contrary to her secretary’s position, even if Mayfield returned to the Senate, she would not serve as a Senate for more than eight consecutive years, for the purposes of Article 4, Section 4 (part of the Constitution). “You’re going to die.” “Mayfield went through a break from work when his Senate term ended in November 2024. The conclusion of that term was that after Mayfield left the Senate office, he was in a “sequential” year. The working period has been put to an end. And if Mayfield wins the election to SD 19 in the upcoming special election, it resumes her “sequential” year’s calculation clock. ”
Similarly, in a consensus, Judge Charles Canady wrote that “Mayfield does not have a “current term” in the Florida Senate, so Section 4 does not prevent him from appearing in the Senate District 19 special election. Masu. Under the terms of Section 4, Mayfield Representative’s previous services in the Florida Senate ended in 2024, but that is irrelevant. ”
“Constitutional provisions can certainly be made to impose lifetime restrictions on services in a particular office. … Similarly, certain offices seeking reelection after a defined period of service. Constitutional provisions can be framed to impose an ineligible period of ineligibility. However, there are no provisions in the (constitutional) text adopted by the people of Florida,” Judge Jorgela Barga said. Canadi wrote, joining the agreed opinion.
The judge also said that Bird’s role in qualified candidates is ministerial in determining whether paperwork has been properly submitted, among other things. The main opinion pointed to the Supreme Court decision of 1928, finding that the Secretary of State had no “discretion to determine whether a candidate is eligible to be placed on the ballot.”
“Consistent with that precedent, the Department has an indisputable legal obligation (essentially ministerial) to notify (county) supervisors of the election of all eligible candidates in accordance with the law. You can see that it is,” Grosshands wrote. “And the right qualified candidates have the right to be placed in the vote.”
Mayfield filed a petition with the Supreme Court on February 6th, seeking emergency lawsuits as special primary votes are needed to go to the military and overseas voters by the end of this week. The primary is scheduled for April 1st.
The qualifying period for the special election that ended on February 4th. On February 5th, Election Bureau Director Maria Matthews wrote a note to Mayfield. The election was held that your name would not appear in the special election vote because it violated Article 4 of the Florida Constitution. ”
In a Supreme Court filing this week, lawyers for Bird and Matthews said Mayfield is “constitutionally unqualified” and Bird, the state’s chief election officer, “suspends common sense or general knowledge.” She claimed that she was not required to “suspend common sense or general knowledge” in order to qualify for her. vote.
“It’s almost the same reason why a secretary cannot qualify that he wishes to include the King of England (non-US citizen) or the infamous serial killer (convicted felons) in his vote (2018). The filing said (if any) in anticipation of a political enemy.
Three other Republicans — Mercy Adkins, Mark Reitner III, Tim Thomas and Democrat Vance Arrens — were eligible to compete in the Senate special election, according to the state election division website. The special general election will be held on June 10th.
In anticipation of running for a Senate seat, Mayfield submitted her resignation from the House on June 9th.
Jim Sanders, Florida news service
