Brevard elections chief sued over claims of mishandling paperwork, candidates

A Brevard political consultant is suing Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic, accusing the elections chief of unequal treatment and his office of mishandling candidate qualifying paperwork.

Robert Burns III, a Palm Bay resident who also runs The Space Coast Rocket local news website, alleges that a staffer in Bobanic's office failed to disqualify two Republican candidates who improperly filed their qualifying paperwork to get on the ballot.

One of the candidates is state lawmaker Randy Fine in the race for Brevard County Republican state committeeman, a local GOP leadership position. Burns and Fine have a long history of lobbing personal attacks and legal complaints against each other.

Bobanic's office disqualified a candidate for Democratic precinct committeewoman over what Burns argues was similar paperwork deficiencies, according to the complaint filed July 26 with a Brevard County court. The elections office failed to notify her of the deficiency or offer to notarize her candidate oath, a courtesy they gave a Republican candidate in another race, Burns said in the filing. Bobanic is a Republican.

Bobanic said the staffer, a candidate coordinator, was fired over the incidents.

"We conducted a thorough audit of the party committee candidate oaths, and that led to that employee that was in charge of that process being let go," Bobanic said.

He declined further comment, citing the pending litigation, but noted that three of four candidates disqualified by his office for various reasons this election season were Republicans.

Burns' lawsuit seeks to compel Bobanic to disqualify Fine and Wayne Twiddy, two candidates for the state committeemen position that will be contested in the Aug. 20 primary election. There are four candidates in that race — the others being Edward Brankey and Greg Loyd.

Fine, a current member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing District 33, also is on the Aug. 20 GOP primary ballot in a second race. He is running for a Florida Senate seat in District 19, facing Charles "Chuck" Sheridan in the primary. That race is not part of Burns' lawsuit.

On Tuesday, Circuit Judge Scott Blaue ruled that the case can proceed, and "further finds that the facts alleged in the petition warrant consideration on an expedited basis." Depending on how quickly Burns can serve documents on Bobanic, Fine and Twiddy, that means the matter could go to a court hearing as early as next week.

Burns filed the legal action after receiving an email from Bobanic's office saying Fine is a qualified candidate for state committeeman, and would remain that way unless someone from outside Bobanic's office "receives legal determination from the court disqualifying him as a candidate for state committeeman."

The way Burns sees it, Bobanic didn't fix the problem someone on his staff created, but, rather, said: "Screw you. Sue me," Burns said.

Burns — a registered Republican who has done campaign consulting work in previous years for both Republican and Democratic candidates — contends that "it's a bad look" for Bobanic and his office for responding to him that way.

Bobanic was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the supervisor of elections position in September 2022, filling a vacancy created by the resignation of Republican Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott, who resigned in the middle of her term after nearly 14 years in that position. Before his appointment as supervisor of elections by DeSantis, Bobanic had been Scott's director of information technology and election services.

Bobanic is being challenged this year in a GOP primary by current District 3 Brevard County Commissioner John Tobia.

Asked about the legal action against Bobanic, Tobia said: "As this is pending litigation, and all the facts have not yet been revealed, it would be premature to comment. However, I fully support a transparent, thorough and independent review, and appreciate our legal system handling it as such."

The complaint Burns filed includes unsubstantiated allegations that Fine and an aide in his office who serves as a bonded notary public may have colluded to falsify Fine's candidate paperwork while he was out of the country during the qualifying period.

Burns and Fine have a bitter public feud going back to at least 2020, when Burns was the campaign manager for Fine's opponent in a vicious primary race. They have traded charges of illegal and unethical behavior in and out of court, including filing multiple complaints against each other with the Florida Elections Commission, the Florida Commission on Ethics and other state agencies.

Fine in a statement referenced Burns' outstanding case with the elections commission that includes dozens of alleged election law violations related to his prior electioneering work.

"His fake lawsuit is quite rich, and the latest evidence of a dangerous sociopath who is obsessed with me and my family," Fine said.

Burns also faces federal charges related to what prosecutors allege was a small business loan fraud scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic. He made recent headlines after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct relating to a September 2023 confrontation with a Fine booster Burns said made inappropriate social media comments about his children.

Fine himself faces potential violations from the ethics commission after he allegedly threatened to interfere with funding for the city of West Melbourne over a political feud. Fine has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which a state judge kicked back to the ethics board for reconsideration in May after it initially found probable cause to charge him with abuse of office.

Among the relief Burns seeks is having the judge order "an immediate review of all other qualified candidates' qualifying documents, with the oversight of a court-appointed third party, to ensure their compliance with Florida’s Election Laws, and take proper action should more unqualified candidates be found to be on the ballot."

Meanwhile, Burns has requested access from the Supervisor of Elections Office to examine other ballot qualifying paperwork filed by local candidates so he can check them for errors. Burns contends that Bobanic's office should post candidate documents online for all to see, much like the Florida Division of Elections does for candidates for the Florida Legislature and other state offices.

Burns said he is currently not doing political consulting work for candidates.

With vote-by-mail ballots already sent to voters, the situation stands to disrupt the Republican state committeeman races if a judge orders Fine or Twiddy's disqualification. State law requires elections offices to notify voters via mail, at the ballot box and at polling precincts if any candidate is removed or withdraws from a race after ballots have been printed.

Votes already cast for a candidate who is removed or withdraws are either not counted or, in some cases, will count for a clearly identified replacement candidate.

Republican voters already have cast more than 7,000 ballots through the vote-by-mail option for the Aug. 20 primary.

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

Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at [email protected], on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard elections chief sued over claims candidate paperwork mishandled