State Rep. Paula Stark on Friday filed suit against the Florida Secretary of State seeking to be placed on the November ballot after failing to qualify earlier this month.
Stark, a Republican from St. Cloud, is asking a circuit judge in Leon County to place her on the November ballot and close the Aug. 18 primary to Republican voters.
Two Democrats qualified to run. And as things stand, with no other candidate in the race, Republicans will be able to vote in the primary election for one of the two Democrats.
Time is short for a court decision ahead of the Aug. 18 primary, with less than two weeks until counties begin printing and mailing primary ballots for overseas voters.
Stark has represented St. Cloud and east Kissimmee in House District 47 since 2022.
At the close of the qualifying period on June 12, the state Division of Elections said it had not received all of her required filing paperwork, making her ineligible to appear on the ballot.
Last week, Stark said that a lawsuit against the state would be the only avenue she had to appear on the ballot, one that she intended to pursue.
Her lawsuit names Secretary of State Cord Byrd, who oversees the state's adherence to election procedure, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dentel and Osceola County supervisor Mary Jane Arrington. They’re responsible for the ballots that will be issued to voters in House District 47.
According to Stark’s complaint, just one document is in question: Form 6, which is the department's financial disclosure form that lists assets, outstanding debts and net worth.
Stark alleges that a clerk for the state took her filing papers, including Form 6, when her treasurer, Joel Davis, filed them in Tallahassee less than an hour before the deadline.
The clerk accepted a check and an oath of office form but "erroneously" returned Form 6 to Davis, according to the complaint.
Davis affirmed as much in a formal declaration, under penalty of perjury.
“Based on filing officer’s instructions, I accepted the Form 6 and thought that Candidate Stark’s qualification was complete,” Davis wrote in the statement, which was attached to the complaint.
The suit argues that because the clerk took the disclosure form from Davis, the state formally "received" that paperwork as defined in its candidacy statutes, meaning she met the rules to qualify.
Ballot deadline
Final primary ballots must be printed and mailed to military and overseas voters no less than 45 days before the election, which this year is Saturday, July 4. But Independence Day will be federally recognized the day prior, meaning the practical mailing deadline is July 2.
Practically speaking, Stark's case would need to be decided within the next nine days.
Stark, when reached on Tuesday, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
But in a statement published last week, Stark was confident: “We believe the facts support the outcome that we in fact did everything required by law and have the proof of that.”
Unless Stark is able to appear on the ballot, her seat will, by default, flip to a Democrat. The other candidates are Anthony Nieves and Jorge Figueroa.
Nieves, a former state investigator, ran for the seat in 2022 and 2024. He won the party nomination in 2022 but finished behind Maria Revelles in the 2024 primary.
Figueroa hasn’t run for the seat before. He is the president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida.
Without Stark, the House District 47 race would be decided in the Aug. 18 primary, which would be open to all registered voters regardless of party affiliation.
