Gabrielle Russon
Seminole County Elections Supervisor Chris Anderson told the Orlando Sentinel he was vindicated after a Judge allowed him to return to the polls and cleared his Office’s signs and materials a day before Election Day.
The Sentinel reported that Seminole Circuit Judge Donna Goerner threw out the temporary injunction issued Friday.
Anderson is running for re-election in Tuesday’s Republican Primary against School Board member Amy Pennock in a tense race.
Anderson was sued last week and accused of blurring the lines between being a candidate and the Elections Supervisor.
Michael Towers, who donated to Pennock’s campaign, filed the lawsuit and was represented by Anderson’s former General Counsel, Phil Kaprow. Kaprow, a political adversary of Anderson, is suing Anderson for slander stemming from a Facebook Live video Anderson made.
Towers and Kaprow’s new lawsuit accused Anderson of inappropriately “greeting voters and shaking their hands as they received their ballot” as early voting is underway.
The lawsuit also said Anderson’s name and logo appeared prominently on signs at the early poll’s “no solicitation” zone, the ballots themselves, and inside the secret ballot stations.
A Seminole County court hearing was scheduled for Monday, a day before the Primary.
“In the Monday hearing, Goerner questioned whether it is almost impossible for an incumbent candidate for Supervisor of Elections to not have their name publicly displayed near voting sites,” the Sentinel reported.
“She added that supervisors of elections clearly have a right to be at voting locations, as long as they’re not campaigning. Goerner said she had concluded that state law is not specific on the issue, despite having the 150-foot neutral zone.”
Kaprow told the Sentinel afterward, “The outcome clearly underscores the need for legislative reform so that an incumbent supervisor of elections cannot be given a greater advantage than any other candidate in the polling sites and within the no-solicitation zone.”
