A lawsuit filed earlier this week by Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson seeks to remove one of his opponents, mayoral candidate and current Orange County District 2 Commissioner Christine Moore, from the upcoming election in March. Nelson accuses Moore of trying to circumvent the city’s residency requirements for qualifying candidates.
Nelson is running for re-election to a third term. Besides Moore, Nelson’s other opponent in the race is Nick Nesta, who resigned last month from his post as Apopka District 4 Councilmember in order to run for mayor.
Apopka’s city charter requires that members of Apopka’s city council, including the mayor, reside within the city for at least one year before their election to office. In his complaint, Nelson argues Moore failed to meet that residency requirement.
As evidence, the complaint cites photos taken in the early-morning hours, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., on 70 days between mid-April and mid-July of last year. The photos show Moore’s car parked outside a house in unincorporated Orange County, a home Moore has owned since 2004. Nelson shared nearly 100 of those photos with Central Florida Public Media.
Late April is when the next Apopka mayor will be sworn in. Moore bought a home within the city limits in mid-July of last year, according to property records.
“She doesn’t qualify. She’s trying to circumvent the law,” Nelson said. “She shouldn’t be on the ballot.”
But Moore argues she has indeed met all the requirements to qualify as a candidate. Although she only bought her home in July, she said she has been living in Apopka proper for more than a year, renting a room from friends.
“I signed the lease March 9th (of 2025), and I was way ahead of that deadline. And so I met all the requirements,” Moore said. “I did what I had to do. Changed my driver's license — I did everything.”
Moore declined to share a copy of her lease, saying her attorney advised her against doing so.
But even before signing that lease, Moore said, she has effectively been living in Apopka since 1988. Her home within unincorporated Orange County sits within one of many enclaves that cut into the city like “Swiss cheese,” Moore said.
“I've lived here for 40 years, okay? I just happened to be in an enclave,” Moore said. “I was elected by the Apopka people five times.”
Moore described the lawsuit filed by Nelson as “pure politics. Of the nearly 100 photos Nelson shared showing her car outside her Orange County home, Moore was dismissive. Only one of those photos show Moore’s car parked outside the Apopka home she bought last summer, according to the lawsuit.
But Moore said that doesn’t prove anything.
“Everyone knows I'm a morning person. If he came over at six or seven (in the morning), I had already left,” Moore said. “I was packing, because I had personal belongings there (at the Orange County home) for 30 years. It was quite a job to move.”
Nelson maintains that Moore failed to meet the city’s requirements.
“What she's done is illegal,” Nelson said. “You have to live in the city of Apopka — and she knew it. … She knows the rules, she knows the laws.”
Along with Moore, Nelson’s lawsuit also names Apopka’s city clerk and the Orange County Supervisor of Elections as co-defendants. The lawsuit seeks for the city clerk to decertify Moore as a candidate, and to stop the elections office from allowing Moore’s name to go on the ballot in March.
Apopka’s city clerk is currently out of office due to illness, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The elections office provided a statement stating it does not comment on pending litigation or make determinations based on allegations.
The Apopka election is March 10, with early voting running from Feb. 23-March 8.
