RONALD TAYLOR, ETC., ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
MARTIN COUNTY CANVASSING BOARD, ETC., ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. | 2000-12-12
No. SC00-2448
WELLS, C.J., and HARDING, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, LEWIS and QUINCE, JJ., concur., SHAW, J., recused.
773 So. 2d 517 Florida Supreme Court (2000)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that despite irregularities in absentee ballot request procedures, if there is no evidence of fraud or misconduct and the election remains a fair expression of the will of the people, the results will not be invalidated.


Headnotes

[1] Irregularities in absentee ballot request procedures, even if contrary to law and creating an appearance of impropriety, do not warrant invalidation of ballots if the int…

[2] A supervisor of elections' policy of not correcting or altering absentee ballot request forms without the elector's express authority is superseded when the supervisor al…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiffs sought to invalidate absentee ballots due to irregularities in how request forms were handled by the Supervisor of Elections and the Republ…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM.

PER CURIAM.

We have for review a trial court order appealed to the First District Court of Appeal, which certified the order to be of great public importance and to require immediate resolution by this Court. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(5) of the Florida Constitution.

This case involves an election contest of the November 7, 2000, presidential election results pursuant to section 102.168, Florida Statutes (2000). The plaintiffs, electors in Martin County, sought to invalidate all or a portion of the absentee ballots cast in Martin County on the basis that there were irregularities relative to the requests for the absentee ballots.

The following facts were established during the non-jury trial on the electors’ complaints. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties of Florida disseminated pre-printed absentee ballot request forms to registered voters in Martin County prior to the election. The Martin County Supervisor of Elections received a number of Republican request forms which had missing or incorrect voter identification numbers on them. There was no similar problem with the Democratic request forms received. The Supervisor’s office followed a policy of not issuing absentee ballots where the elector’s voter registration number was missing or incorrect on the request form. Further, it was office policy not to fill in any missing information or make any corrections or alterations to the request form without the express authority of the elector. Despite this policy and despite the requirements of section 101.62, Florida Statutes (2000),1 the Supervisor of Elections allowed representatives of the Florida Republican Party to remove several hundred request forms from her office in order to add missing voter identification numbers. After making these changes, the Republican Party officials returned the request forms to the Supervisor’s office. The Supervisor then processed the corrected request forms and sent absentee ballots to the voters. See Taylor v. Martin County Canvassing Bd., No. CV 00-2850, 2000 WL 1793409, at *1 (Fla.2d Cir.Ct. Dec. 8, 2000).

In their complaint, the plaintiffs asserted that this procedure in Martin County violated various Florida laws, created an opportunity for fraud, tainted the integrity and fairness of the election, and cast doubt on the validity of the results. The plaintiffs asked the trial court to invalidate the ballots issued under this procedure.

Following the non-jury trial in this case, the trial court concluded that the procedure was contrary to Florida law, offered an opportunity for fraud, and created the appearance of partisan favoritism on the part of the Supervisor of Elections. See id. at *2. However, the court found no evidence of “fraud nor other intentional misconduct.” Id. The court further concluded that “despite these irregularities [relative to the requests for absentee ballots] ... the sanctity of the ballot and the integrity of the election were not affected” and that “[t]he election in Martin County was a full and fair expression of the will of the people.” Id. at *4. Based upon these conclusions, the trial court found that the plaintiffs were not entitled to relief. Id.

In Jacobs v. Seminole County Canvassing Board, 773 So. 2d 519 (Fla.2000), we were faced with almost identical circumstances regarding absentee ballot requests. While the circuit court found similar irregularities surrounding absentee ballot requests in that case, it also found no evidence of fraud or misconduct. See Jacobs v. Seminole County Canvassing Bd., No. 00-2816, 2000 WL 1793429, at *4 (Fla.2d Cir.Ct. Dec. 8, 2000).

We conclude that our decision in Jacobs controls the outcome in the instant case. Accordingly, we affirm the result below based upon the reasoning we expressed in Jacobs.

It is so ordered.

WELLS, C.J., and HARDING, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, LEWIS and QUINCE, JJ., concur. SHAW, J., recused.

. Section 101.62, Florida Statutes (2000), governs requests for absentee ballots. This statute provides that the supervisor of elections may only accept a request for an absentee ballot from "the elector, or, if directly instructed by the elector, a member of the elector’s immediate family, or the elector’s legal guardian.” Id. § 101.062(l)(b). Further, the person making a request for an absentee ballot must disclose the following information: the name of the elector for whom the ballot is requested; the elector’s address; the last four digits of the elector’s social security number; the elector's voter registration number; the requester’s name, address, social security number and, if available, driver’s license number, and relationship to the elector, and the requester’s signature, if a written request. See id.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw