Judge Nixes Signs in Foley's District
Posted on: Thursday, 19 October 2006, 00:00 CDT
By BILL KACZOR
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida law doesn't permit polling place signs saying a vote for disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley will go to a replacement candidate, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Janet Ferris granted a temporary injunction to stop election officials from using signs at the polls on Nov. 7. The signs would say that while Foley's name remains on the ballot, Republican state Rep. Joe Negron will get his votes instead in the race against Democrat Tim Mahoney.
Negron spokesman Todd Harris said Negron would appeal. Secretary of State Sue Cobb also will appeal, said spokeswoman Jenny Nash.
Foley, 52, a Florida Republican, resigned from Congress last month after being confronted with sexually explicit Internet communications he had with teenage boys who worked on Capitol Hill.
In her ruling, Ferris cited a 2005 law that repealed a provision which had called for putting replacement candidates' names on the ballot up to 21 days before a general election. The new law instead prohibits name changes after primary election results are finalized.
When Foley resigned Sept. 29, it was too late to change the ballots.
Ferris wrote that lawmakers had a chance in that law to require explanatory signs, as the Kentucky Legislature did in a similar statute, but declined.
"The court is not at liberty to question the Legislature's decision, or its judgment, in enacting the statute, and there can be little doubt that it understood the confusion likely to result," she wrote.
Democrats, who claimed signs would favor Republicans, applauded the ruling.
"It is a victory for the Florida Democratic Party obviously, but more importantly it is a victory for Democrats, Republicans, independents and other parties that in the fact we have now gotten a clarification of what the law is," said state Democratic chairwoman Karen Thurman, who filed the lawsuit.
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AP writer Brendan Farrington in Punta Gorda contributed to this report.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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