Supreme Court of Florida

In an action seeking a declaration of the constitutionality of a proposed amendment to the Sarasota County charter setting forth detailed election requirements, the decision of the Second District is approved in part and quashed in part where: 1) the Florida Election Code does not impliedly preempt the field of elections law; 2) there is no conflict between section 6.2A of the amendment, which provides that no voting system can be used in Sarasota County elections that does not provide a voter verified paper ballot, and the Florida Election Code, and even if there were a conflict, the issue would be moot as touch screen voting machines will no longer be permitted in Florida; 3) procedure set forth in section 6.2C, providing that no election can be certified until the mandatory audits in section 6.2B are completed an any accuracy concerns have been resolved, conflicts with the statutory provisions in the Election Code and is unconstitutional; and 4) section 6.2C can and should be severed from the rest of the amendment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/11/2010
• Published 02/11/2010

Judges

• QUINCE, C.J.

Court

• Supreme Court of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Thomas D. Shults and Zachary L. Ross of Kirk Pinkerton, P.A., Sarasota, FL, for Petitioners.


• For Appellees:
  
• Peter Antonacci and Allen Winsor of GrayRobinson, P. A., Tallahassee, FL; Ronald A. Labasky and John T. LaVia, III of Young Van Assenderp, P.A., Tallahassee, FL; and Stephen E. De Marsh, County Attorney, Frederick J. Elbrecht, Deputy County Attorney, and Scott T. Bossard, Assistant County Attorney, Board of County Commissioners, Sarasota, FL, for Respondents.