Judge dismisses Brevard election lawsuit in last-minute hearing

A Brevard County judge on Monday afternoon dismissed a lawsuit filed against Elections Supervisor Tim Bobanic over allegations of mishandled paperwork, only hours before polls opened for the primary Tuesday morning.

The suit, filed last month by Brevard political consultant Robert Burns, sought a court order forcing Bobanic to remove two candidates from the ballot for Republican state committeeman, after Burns said Bobanic's office improperly accepted incomplete qualifying paperwork.

The candidates referenced in the suit were State Rep. Randy Fine and Wayne Twiddy. Fine is also running for State Senate, which was not a part of the case.

The other two candidates in the GOP committeeman race are Edward Brankey and Greg Loyd.

Circuit Judge Scott Blaue on Monday dismissed the case after finding that Burns didn't have a legal right to seek a court order (called a "writ of mandamus" in legal speak) compelling Bobanic to remove Fine and Twiddy from the ballot, citing precedent from a list of cases.

"All of those (cases) indicate that there's no private cause of action to compel the supervisor of elections to make that determination unless ... that mandamus is brought by the candidate, the supervisor of elections or the opposing candidate," Blaue said.

Bobanic thanked the court in a statement. "My office looks forward to seeing voters at the polls on Tuesday," Bobanic said.

Burns told FLORIDA TODAY he planned to appeal the ruling.

"It’s disappointing to learn today that according to the judge, a private citizen doesn’t have the right to hold their elections official accountable, only a candidate does. Hopefully one day we will have candidates with the courage to take the actions I did today to fight for the integrity of their own ballot," Burns said in a statement.

"What is clear is that our supervisor, in this case needed a supervisor. He terminated his employee for her failures, but did nothing to correct his. I hope this has shed some much needed light on the process and alleged integrity of the elections in Brevard county. And I will keep fighting to do so.”

Burns filed the suit after Fine and Twiddy omitted certain information from their candidate oaths, including the date of notarization and, in Twiddy's case, his legal residence. Bobanic said the staffer that accepted the incomplete paperwork was fired over the incident.

In his own statement, Fine referenced outstanding cases against Burns unrelated to the suit — including potential elections code violations relating to his prior campaign work, and a federal case involving allegations of COVID-19 small business loan fraud — calling him a "career criminal."

"Our tax dollars paid for the defense and the Judge's time in what was clearly frivolous," Fine said. "I look forward to Burns no longer menacing this community after his upcoming convictions for election and Covid stimulus fraud."

Fine and Burns (who also runs the Space Coast Rocket local news site) have a history of scathing public insults and attacks against each other, going back to 2020 when Burns managed a campaign for Fine's opponent in the Republican primary for State House District 53.

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 judge dismisses lawsuit against Bobanic on eve of primary