Mayoral Candidate Off Ballot After Check Returned
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MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) — An appeals court has ruled that a South Florida mayoral candidate should be kept off the August 30th ballot because a qualifying check was returned by a bank --- despite the candidate having adequate money in his account.
James Wright, who is running for Miami Gardens mayor, opened a campaign account in February with Wells Fargo Bank and was issued "starter checks" for the new account.
Wright used one of the checks June 1st to pay a $620 qualifying fee to get on the August 30th city ballot. But on June 16th, two weeks after the qualifying period ended, the city clerk was notified that the check had been returned to the city because the "account number on the check could not be located."
The clerk notified Wright that he had been disqualified as a candidate.
Wright, who had enough money in the account to cover the qualifying fee, filed a lawsuit on June 30th seeking to get on the ballot. But a Miami-Dade County circuit judge last month rejected Wright's arguments, leading to the appeal.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld the circuit judge's decision, pointing to part of state law that requires fees to be paid during the qualifying period. The appeals court, nevertheless, asked the Florida Supreme Court to take up the issue, which is known as certifying a question to the Supreme Court.
"When a candidate's qualification fee has been returned by the bank for any reason, the statute rather plainly provides a mechanism for a candidate to pay the qualifying fee only within the qualifying period," said Wednesday's seven-page decision, written by Judge Edwin Scales. "We recognize the statute produces a harsh result in this case. When an unambiguous statute plainly requires a particular result, though, courts are powerless to fashion a different result under the auspices of fairness."
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.