Judge Blocks Florida Republican From Appearing On Primary Ballot

Florida Republican Rep. Paula Stark will not appear on the November ballot after a state judge rejected her attempt to reverse a filing error that ended her reelection campaign.

Stark, a two-term state lawmaker from St. Cloud, failed to qualify for another term because her campaign did not submit all required paperwork before Florida’s June 12 deadline.

Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes initially declined to restore Stark’s candidacy but allowed her one week to present additional evidence that she had complied with state election requirements.

After her attorney asked the court to reconsider, Hawkes rejected the motion, describing reconsideration as an “extraordinary remedy” that cannot be used simply to argue the case again.

Stark’s campaign treasurer later confirmed that the campaign would not appeal the decision.

Her removal leaves only two Democrats competing for Florida House District 47, which includes portions of Orange and Osceola counties. Because no Republican remains in the race, the August 18 Democratic primary will be open to all voters and will effectively determine the district’s next representative.

Stark’s attorney, former Republican state lawmaker Anthony Sabatini, argued that the Florida Division of Elections had adopted an “unwritten policy change” during the final half-hour of candidate qualifying.

According to Sabatini, officials stopped reviewing submissions for completeness after 11:30 a.m. and accepted paperwork without notifying candidates of possible deficiencies. He argued that Stark was therefore never warned that her required Form 6 financial disclosure was missing.

Hawkes rejected that claim, ruling that the streamlined procedure was intended to give every candidate an opportunity to submit documents before the noon deadline.

“This procedure balances the Division’s need to qualify before the noon deadline and the statutory duty to make reasonable efforts to notify the candidate of potential defects,” Hawkes wrote.

Stark filed suit one week after election officials determined that her paperwork was incomplete.

Her campaign blamed the mistake on confusion at the Division of Elections office in Tallahassee when her campaign treasurer and partner, Joel Davis, delivered the documents.

Davis claimed that a disturbance inside the office distracted staff and caused a clerk to return Stark’s financial disclosure without applying the required timestamp.

That explanation fell apart after testimony from four election clerks and their supervisor.

Although the witnesses confirmed that a disturbance occurred, they said it happened hours before Davis arrived. Hawkes concluded that the timeline contradicted Davis’ account and damaged his credibility.

“The Court finds that the incident happened early in the morning and would not have served as the distraction that Mr. Davis suggests it would have before closing,” Hawkes wrote.

“The Court also finds that the timing discrepancy of this incident severely undermines Mr. Davis’ credibility,” the judge added.

Hawkes concluded that the more likely explanation was that Davis believed the form did not need to be submitted to the elections office because he had already filed it with the Florida Commission on Ethics.

It is more likely that “Davis thought the Form 6 was not needed because he had submitted it the day before to the Florida Commission on Ethics,” which is a separate agency, Hawkes wrote.

“Mr. Davis attributed this line of thinking to the clerk in supposedly handing him back the Form 6, but it is much more likely that he thought this and did not actually turn in the Form 6,” he added.

The ruling represents a costly procedural failure for Florida Republicans, who will now surrender the district without a general-election candidate.

While both parties regularly use the courts to fight over election rules and ballot access, Hawkes found that Stark’s removal resulted from her campaign’s own failure to submit the required disclosure—not from an improper action by election officials.