Bobanic lawsuit looms in final days of primary, casting uncertainty on GOP leadership race

A lawsuit filed against Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic over claims his office mishandled candidate qualifying paperwork could be decided after Tuesday's primary election day, threatening to throw the results of a local Republican committeeman election into doubt.

The suit, filed late last month by Brevard political consultant Robert Burns, alleges that Bobanic's office inappropriately accepted incomplete qualifying paperwork for at least two candidates for Republican State Committeeman, a local GOP leadership position.

Bobanic previously said the staffer who accepted the paperwork was fired after the issue was brought to his attention.

Burns, who also runs the Space Coast Rocket local news site, is asking a judge to compel Bobanic to disqualify candidates Wayne Twiddy and State Rep. Randy Fine from the ballot. Fine is also running for State Senate, which this lawsuit would not affect.

A hearing on a motion to dismiss the case filed by Bobanic's attorneys is set for late Monday afternoon, less than 16 hours before polls are scheduled to open Tuesday.

Also running for the GOP committeeman slot are Greg Loyd and Edward Brankey.

If Fine or Twiddy wins the election but is later disqualified by the court, under Florida law the vacancy could be filled by a candidate selected by a majority vote of the Brevard Republican Executive Committee, who represent only a fraction of the county's more than 195,000 registered Republican voters.

In a court filing, Burns argued that delaying a ruling on the case raised questions about voter enfranchisement and election integrity.

"What's disappointing to me is that Tim could still remove Randy and Wayne from the ballot today on his own, but he's choosing not to do so. And he may end up having a judge force him to do it, which is a problem," Burns said. "I'm looking forward to arguing the merits of the case Monday."

In his own statement, Bobanic said: "Although I can't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, litigation has become an all too common weapon used by candidates and political operatives."

Bobanic is running as the incumbent for supervisor of elections Tuesday against County Commissioner John Tobia. Bobanic took over the office in 2022 at the appointment of Gov. Ron DeSantis following the early retirement of prior elections chief Lori Scott.

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard election lawsuit could impact GOP committeeman race