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Posted on 07/28/2026 12:37:51 PM PDT by george76
Republican Florida State Rep. Paula Stark, a two-term lawmaker, will not be on the ballot. After a weeks-long legal battle, it was determined that she failed to file the proper paperwork for reelection, which is baffling. That’s a clear failure on the part of Ms. Stark and her staff. This is the ‘layup’ portion of the race, lady.
What the hell happened?
June 12—that’s what happened. That’s the deadline for Ms. Stark to submit her forms, including the critical financial disclosure documents, which her treasurer alleges he did. Rep. Paula Stark says her office did submit them, but claims the deadline was missed because the paperwork was returned by mistake amid chaos following an altercation at the state election office. Lawsuits were filed. Numerous state election workers have disputed the account given by Stark’s treasurer (via Orlando Sentinel):
The state officials said Stark, a two-term Republican from St. Cloud who wanted to run again for the Florida House, is not on the ballot because her campaign did not turn in all the required paperwork before noon on June 12, the deadline for the 2026 candidate qualifying period.
Her treasurer disputed that, saying he turned in the paperwork, including the Form 6 financial report, but a clerk erroneously handed it back to him. There is no evidence of a time-stamped form, however, filed with the state’s Division of Elections.
A week after she was bumped, Stark sued the state to try to get back on the ballot. If she can’t convince a judge she’s right, the seat will end up represented by a Democrat, as two candidates from that party are the only qualified candidates.
Although candidates for Florida office regularly run afoul of the rules, Stark’s situation is an extraordinary snafu involving a political incumbent.
Joel Davis, the treasurer who is also Stark’s partner, told a judge in Leon County Circuit Court that he turned in the paperwork and said Stark should be on the ballot. He blamed a commotion in the office for the lack of a time stamp.
But the five workers who worked the counter at the state elections office that day said they could not recall helping Davis or handing back to him, or anyone else, a financial disclosure form. They also said the commotion happened earlier in the day and didn’t match Davis’ description.
Judge Joshua Hawkes, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, said during the online court hearing that he would take all their testimony under consideration and issue his ruling as soon as possible given the short time constraint. The primary is Aug. 18.
Stark sued the state to get back on the ballot and require the Orange County and Osceola County election supervisors to close the August primary. Since Stark did not quality, the Democratic primary is open to all registered voters because, without a GOP candidate, that election will decide a winner.
...
Well, the fight is over. On July 23, Judge Hawkes dismissed Stark’s suit. This district flips for the Democrats because they couldn't submit their paperwork on time.
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Great...so you couldn’t have done this on June 7th?
Is it an R or D district?
Maybe a stupid question, why did he take them?
I have never filed any paper work where I ended up taking it back with me.
That should have raised some questions in his mind.
Primary? Who needs a primary with candidates? Just let the party elites pick a candidate instead of having a primary on August 18. That is what the Democrats would do.
This reminds me of the similar election snafu some years ago, when Thaddeus (McCotter?) Failed to get his paperwork in on time.
How pathetic is this? Talk about blowing the grade-school basics!
Why can’t they use the mail-in registration and have it counted two weeks after the deadline...like ballots.
“commotion”
It seems to me that they’re being evasive re the nature of the commotion. What ‘commotion’ occurs in an elections office and WHY ON EARTH would anyone attempt to conduct business in such a climate anyway?
Poor decisions by the elections office. If I was the judge, I’d put her on the ballot.
Any political party wants as many seats as possible; hopefully the state won't suffer too much from the missed deadline. The R's hold a super-majority in both houses.
The problem is getting Rino’s to sit up and vote right all the time.
D+9 district.
She was lucky to have ever won it, and had at least a 50 percent chance of losing in November anyway.
Still, she shouldn’t have screwed up THIS bad.
Good question, and as usual the media doesn’t do its job reporting.
The reporter should have gotten the particulars on any commotion in the courthouse, what it was about, and who was involved.
When a friend of mine was an election official, the mayor of the town started a fistfight with him over being told the mayor was politicking to close to the polls (if you aren’t an election worker or a voter in the process of casting a ballot you aren’t allowed to come within 100 feet.)
The mayor ran up to him and took a swing at my friend. They had to get the sheriff to drag the mayor out of there for assault.
For all anyone knows that could have been an attempt to distract the officials long enough to steal or plant ballots if the mayor had an accomplice, and not just the mayor being an idiot.
With lost house seats.
Based on testimony, the judge did not believe the treasurer’s story that this happened.
Write-in?
Well if you are supposed to "turn in" paperwork, why would you walk out with the paperwork that is no longer supposed to be in your possession?
I can’t say I blame the judge.
Why would he take the forms back without explanation for why they were returned?
I don’t think it was a screwup… It was on purpose
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