By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County Circuit Judge Jeffrey M. Fleming on Friday denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by former candidate Armando Ramirez seeking to void the results of the Nov. 2 district 2 County Commission election and have the court order a new election.

Ramirez, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit shortly after the election that put incumbent Republican John Quiñones back in office for four years. Ramirez lost the race by just a few more votes than what would have triggered an automatic recount.

Defendants in the case are the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Office and Supervisor Mary Jane Arrington, Quiñones and county canvassing board members Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. and Osceola County Judge Hal C. Epperson. Arrington had filed the motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

At Friday’s hearing the judge also allowed Buenaventura Lakes community activist Beulah Farquharson, who has run unsuccessfully for public office on several occasions, to be an intervener in the case on behalf of Ramirez, who, as of Friday, was not represented by counsel. None of the defendants in the lawsuit attended the hearing.

“I’m very happy that the motion to dismiss was not granted – that was a big victory,” Ramirez said after the hearing, flanked by his wife, Milly.

In the lawsuit, Ramirez alleges that serious irregularities occurred in the election, including that legal votes were cast but not counted due to malfunctioning electronic voting machines. He also alleges that elections office personnel erased hundreds of valid votes by using a manual override function on the office’s central tabulating computer and that votes were uploaded to this computer on Nov. 5, three days after unofficial election results had been announced.

Ramirez also contends that provisional ballots were changed from “rejection” to “acceptance” outside of a public canvassing board meeting, in violation of Florida statute, and that there were “scores of other irregularities and fraudulent acts.”

In an email that Ramirez sent out before Friday’s court hearing, he alleges that valid votes were altered or erased in at least five precincts in district 2.

“Documentary proof is in existence and will be submitted to the court handling this case that will shock the conscience of all the people of goodwill in Osceola County, especially the voters and their valid votes that were not counted,” Ramirez stated in the email.

Judge Fleming also used Friday’s hearing to deal with a number of motions from defendants to strike various paragraphs or sentences from the pleading, calling some of the plaintiff’s requests for records from the supervisor of elections office a “fishing expedition” or overly broad and that comments about what happened in elections in other counties was immaterial. Some of the motions to strike were successful, others were not, and some were sustained in part, allowing plaintiffs to narrow the scope of their requests.

There was even banter between the two sides over whether Kissimmee attorney R. Stephen Miles, of Overstreet, Miles, Ritch & Cumbie, who was in the vote-counting area during the election as counsel for the elections office, should have been handling ballots.

Miles said he was an “employee” of the elections office at the time and therefore allowed to handle ballots. Ramirez said the attorney was at the elections office as “counsel,” not an employee, and thus not allowed by state law to handle ballots.

Ramirez also said then-County Attorney Jo Thacker was handling ballots as well, in violation of state statute.

“The county attorney doesn’t have any business touching ballots; Mr. Miles doesn’t have any business touching ballots,” Ramirez said during the hearing.

After dealing with the various motions, the judge told Ramirez that just because items are struck from the pleading, it doesn’t mean they can’t be pursued during the discovery phase in the non-jury trial.

The final hearing for the lawsuit has been set for Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 24-25, with a third day available on Friday, Aug. 26, if needed. The pre-trial final hearing was set for Friday, Aug. 12.

When asked about not having counsel, Ramirez said he had interviewed at least four attorneys about taking the case but all had declined.

“There was a lack of knowledge about election law on their part; all felt apprehensive about handling a case like mine,” Ramirez said. “Because of that, I’m compelled to handle the case myself – It’s not that I want to do it.”

Frank Townsend, staff attorney with the Osceola County Attorney’s office, was representing the members of the canvassing board while Ron Labasky, lawyer for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections, was representing Arrington.

Ramirez’s former attorney was Orlando-based Derek B. Brett.

Farquharson is familiar with Ramirez’s case and was one of his representatives when ballots were counted following the closing of polls in the last election. Farquharson also videotaped some of the activities in the elections office; some of those recordings will be presented as evidence, according to the plaintiffs.