-Caveat Lector-
Friday, December 8, 2000
Bay County absentee ballot suit dismissed
FLORIDA LAW: Absentee voters must be 'unable' to attend the polls.
KENDALL MIDDLEMAS
The Panama City News Herald
A Leon County circuit judge on Thursday dismissed a Panama City
woman's lawsuit alleging irregularities in thousands of absentee
ballots cast in Bay County.
Her lawyer said he would appeal the decision.
"The irregularities alleged are not the type of noncompliance
supporting the relief sought by plaintiff," Judge L. Ralph Smith
Jr. wrote in his order dismissing the lawsuit brought by Cynthia
McCauley. "Plaintiff has alleged no ultimate facts to support her
conclusory allegations that any violations of statute thwarted
the will of the voters or compromised the sanctity of the
ballot."
Smith had been scheduled to hear the case today.
The relief McCauley sought was the invalidation of more than
10,000 absentee ballots cast in Bay County in the presidential
election.
Her complaint alleged that a Republican Party of Florida mailing
that encouraged people to vote by absentee ballot failed to cite
a Florida law that requires absentee voters to be "unable" to
attend the polls.
McCauley alleged that many who responded to the mailing might not
have been truly unable to vote in person on Election Day.
"There's a law that says in order to vote absentee you have to
swear that you're unable to attend the polls," McCauley's
attorney, Alvin Peters, said Thursday. "Gov. Jeb Bush and the
Republican Party led thousands of Florida voters to believe that
that didn't matter."
The mailing included a letter from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and
carried his picture. The letter was transcribed over the state
seal.
Judge Smith said the use of the state seal was a matter for
another arena -not a civil courtroom.
"If the Republican Party, or the person signing the letter for
the Republican Party, violated any Florida law by using the
photograph of the governor, or the seal of the State of Florida,
that violation can be prosecuted by the proper public officials
of this state," Smith wrote. "And if there was any violation of
the law for misstating the Florida law regarding absentee voting,
that violation can also be prosecuted by public officials."
But Peters said the ruling could open the door for absentee
voting to become a matter of convenience rather than necessity.
"I think that the opinion essentially converts Florida from a
polling-place state, as set forth in Article 6, Section 1 of the
Florida Constitution, to a mail-in ballot state," Peters said.
Peters likely will file his appeal today. Ordinarily, Smith's
ruling would be appealed to the First District Court of Appeal,
but that step has been skipped in many other election lawsuits of
late and the cases have gone directly to the Florida Supreme
Court.
The case arrived in Leon County Circuit Court two weeks ago after
Bay County Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet transferred it there.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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