On August 23, Cheryl Grieb won re-election to the Osceola County Commission for her district 4 seat, earning 3,629 votes – 48.4% of those cast – over challengers Jackie Espinosa and Carlos Irizarry, who received 2,919 and 953 votes respectively in the winner-take-all race.
But Espinosa, a downtown Kissimmee business owner, is challenging the validity of those results, claiming Irizarry, a former Kissimmee city commissioner, was put in the race by outside forces. He was put up not to win, but to siphon away part of the area’s Hispanic vote, to help ensure Grieb’s victory.
So says a 55-page complaint that is the basis of Espinosa’s lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court on Sept. 9, after the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Canvassing Board certified the results of the election. That board, Grieb and Irizarry are listed in the lawsuit as defendants.
Espinosa held a press conference this week, laying out her complaints.
“To ensure all voices are heard in Osceola County. I am disheartened by the act of Carlos Irizarry, a ghost candidate whose action hurt the Hispanic community to personal gain. Disenfranchising the Latino community will no longer be tolerated. Osceola County has had a long history of doing this; enough is enough. Sitting silent is no longer an option.”
Espinosa says she hopes the courts will “do the right thing for the community” and invalidate the election results, and that Irizarry is “brought to questioning and justice is served for our community.”
Among the list of complaints in the lawsuit:
- Irizarry used his home address in Buenaventura Lakes for his campaign – that is located in district 2 rather than district 4;
- Irizarry received five campaign contributions of $1,000 from companies (B Florida Soil Cement LL, Tramac Paving and Milling, Track & Roller Equipment LLC, B Knji LLC, B Grassroots Seeding and Mulching) listed at the same address in Riverview, Florida, which is east of Tampa;
- Conversations went on via phone and text regarding who funded Irizarry’s campaign and why they were doing so (The News-Gazette has access to some of this text conversations and is working to translate them);
- That Irizarry was offered and received money as a bribe to run, in order to affect the results of the election.
As part of the complaint, Daniel A. Smith, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, at the University of Florida, was retained to examine what Espinosa laid out as evidence.
“I have written extensively about election procedures, including candidate elections that candidates on the ballot that are sometimes referred to as ‘spoiler’ or ‘ghost’ candidates,” Smith writes in the lawsuit. “Given the long history and continuation of racially polarized voting in Osceola County, there is evidence that had Irizarry not been on the ballot, Hispanic voters would have instead cast their vote for Espinosa, also a Hispanic candidate.
“Leveraging precinct-level turnout and election results, both the raw votes and vote shares in the Osceola County Commission District 4 contest … in my opinion there is evidence that Irizarry peeled votes away from Espinosa, particularly in the heavy Hispanic turnout precincts.”
This is a continuing, developing story. Stick with the News-Gazette and AroundOsceola.com for further details.
