{"id":5210,"date":"2026-06-24T11:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5210"},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:34:57","slug":"after-failing-to-make-ballot-st-cloud-lawmaker-files-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5210","title":{"rendered":"After failing to make ballot, St. Cloud lawmaker files lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>TALLAHASSEE \u2013 State Rep. Paula Stark is suing the state after she wasn\u2019t placed on the ballot during qualifying week earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5209\">Asking Eric: My longtime friend and her spouse won\u2019t take a 10-mile detour to visit me<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The St. Cloud Republican claims she submitted all her proper paperwork June 12, the last day of qualifying, but has said the Division of Elections staffer handling it improperly told rejected her financial disclosure forms.<\/p>\n<p>Stark\u2019s campaign treasurer, Joel Davis, signed a sworn statement saying he submitted the financial disclosure paperwork, known as Form 6, but the staffer \u201cerroneously returned\u201d the form to Davis.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court on Friday, says Stark is legally qualified for the race and asking for her to be placed on the District 47 ballots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout the court\u2019s intervention, (Stark) will be precluded from being a candidate in the election,\u201d the filing states. \u201c(Stark) has no other remedy to contest her unlawful exclusion from the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The snafu on the financial disclosure form came after Davis initially tried to pay the qualifying fee with a cashier\u2019s check the morning of June 12 but was told that wouldn\u2019t be accepted. According to his sworn statement, Davis returned at 11:35 a.m. \u2013 25 minutes before the noon deadline to qualify \u2013 with the paperwork.<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s qualifying period for legislative races began at noon June 8 and ran until noon June 12.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5208\">4 Central Florida restaurants and a food truck shut down after health inspections last week<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Two Democrats, Jorge and Anthony Nieves, did qualify for the ballot and if Stark isn\u2019t placed on the ballot the seat would flip to Democrats after the November general election.<\/p>\n<p> <!--Ad-Slot: outstream_video--><\/p>\n<p>Stark\u2019s lawsuit, though, could affect their primary.<\/p>\n<p>In Florida, primaries are closed, meaning only voters registered as a member of that party can vote in the primary. But there\u2019s an exception if no one else qualified for the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>If Stark\u2019s challenge is successful and she\u2019s installed on the ballot the Democratic primary will be limited to Democratic voters, but if it isn\u2019t all voters in the district will be able to vote in the primary.<\/p>\n<p>Stark\u2019s District 47 seat covers a sliver of Orange County and a chunk of Osceola County that includes St. Cloud. It\u2019s considered a toss-up district for legislative elections, and Stark has won narrow victories during her time in office<\/p>\n<p> <!--Ad-Slot: cube_article--><\/p>\n<p>She first joined the House in 2022 by defeating Nieves by 878 votes out of more than 46,000 cast, less than 2 percent. In 2024 her margin of victory was 1,246 votes over Democrat Maria Revelles, about 1.6 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5207\">Windermere sues its residents over their boathouses \u2014 again<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State Rep. Paul Stark, R-St. Cloud, is suing the state after she failed to earn a place on the 2026 ballot when candidate qualifying ended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,13,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>After failing to make ballot, St. Cloud lawmaker files lawsuit - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After failing to make ballot, St. Cloud lawmaker files lawsuit - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"State Rep. 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