The battle for control of Congress and statehouses is underway, with Republicans and Democrats using every tool to gain an advantage.
That includes the courts, by the way, and a GOP lawmaker appears to be among the first casualties.
Rep. Paula Stark, a St. Cloud Republican who served two terms in the Florida Legislature, will not appear on the November ballot despite her reelection bid.
Leon County Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes rejected Stark’s effort to be reinstated to the ballot after she failed to qualify because required candidate paperwork was not submitted, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Monday.
In an earlier ruling, Hawkes declined to restore Stark’s candidacy but gave her one week to provide additional evidence supporting her claim that she had complied with the filing requirements.
After Stark’s attorney filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider, Hawkes denied the request, describing reconsideration as an “extraordinary remedy” that could not be used to relitigate the case.
Stark’s campaign treasurer later said the campaign would not appeal the decision.
With Stark no longer in the race, voters in Florida House District 47 will choose between the two Democratic candidates who qualified for the ballot, as no other Republican entered the contest.
Because only Democratic candidates remain, the Aug. 18 primary will be open to all voters and will effectively determine the district’s next representative.
District 47 includes portions of Orange and Osceola counties, the outlet reported.
Stark’s attorney, former state lawmaker Anthony Sabatini, argued that the Florida Division of Elections had adopted an “unwritten policy change” under which election officials stopped reviewing candidate paperwork for completeness after 11:30 a.m. and instead accepted all filings without checking them for errors.
Downballot/Florida Politics: “Florida state Representative Paula Stark (R) will not appear on the ballot after a state judge dismissed her lawsuit seeking to reinstate her name, a decision that will automatically result in Stark’s seat flipping to Democrats.”…
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 27, 2026
He contended that, as a result, Stark was never alerted that she had failed to submit the required Form 6 financial disclosure.
Hawkes rejected that argument, ruling that the streamlined filing procedure was implemented to ensure that all candidates had an opportunity to submit their paperwork before the noon qualifying deadline, the Sentinel reported.
“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, who was seeking a third term in the Florida House, failed to submit all of the required candidate qualification paperwork by the June 12 filing deadline, according to state election officials.
One week later, she filed a lawsuit seeking to have her name restored to the ballot.
In her suit, Stark argued that confusion caused by a disturbance at the Florida Division of Elections office in Tallahassee disrupted the filing process when her campaign treasurer and partner, Joel Davis, submitted her paperwork.
She claimed the confusion resulted in her required financial disclosure form not being filed.
Davis alleged that, because of the disruption, a clerk returned the financial disclosure form to him without applying a time stamp, preventing it from being properly processed.
Hawkes rejected that explanation after hearing testimony from four election clerks and their supervisor.
The witnesses acknowledged that a disturbance had occurred at the office but testified that it took place hours before Davis arrived to file Stark’s paperwork, contradicting his account of the events.
“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.
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 different body than the elections office, Hawkes wrote in his original ruling.
“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 noted further, per the Orlando news outlet.
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