Florida held primaries for U.S. House, 20th district, on November 2. This is for a special election to fill a seat that has been vacant since April 6, 2021. On November 24, the Democrat who placed second in that primary filed a lawsuit, alleging that the winner is not eligible.
The lawsuit is in Broward County Circuit Court, and alleges that the winner, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, is not eligible because (1) she didn’t file a campaign finance report; (2) she campaigned on a promise to work for an additional $1,000 federal stimulus check for all taxpayers, and the lawsuit says this is equivalent to trying to bribe the voters. The lawsuit, filed by candidate Dale Holness (who placed second) also says that election officials improperly refused to count 12 overseas absentee ballots. No one know whether the result would change if those 12 ballots were counted. The margin between the two candidates is only five votes.
The special election is set for January 11, 2022.
ALL govt spending = one giant bribe for special interests — to get votes — continue looting ???
PURGE LIST
Does the law state specifically that a candidate is ineligible for failure to file a campaign finance report?
The federal constitution is supposed to have an exhaustive list of (dis)qualifications for Congress which doesn’t include any of these, but this is Florida, so that may not apply.
Walter, no, there is no such law for federal office.
Someone might have to notice. Florida, man.
The headline is misleading.
It makes it sound like the lawsuit was trying to change the ballot to “Sheldon McCormick”
I find the second reason ironic considering that that’s exactly what Biden and Warnock did in GA in that recent senate election. And if the court were to rule in favor of Holness, it could have quite the chilling effect on how candidates convey their ideas and platform, since most aspects of a platform are in one way or another a description of how a candidate intends to use government/taxpayer funds to the benefit of the people of this country, whether it’s in the form of subsidies for certain corporations, or infrastructure projects, or robust social welfare for the poor and working class, or other policies. This portion of the lawsuit in particular needs to fail.
The eligibility arguments are quackery. Maybe a case on the uncounted ballots but probably not.
If any part of the lawsuit succeeds, then it establishes the precedent(?) that Broward County Circuit Courts can add to the list of (dis)qualifications in the US Constitution and overrule the federal courts all the way up to the Supreme Court.