Supreme Court of Florida. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Florida Phoenix)
The Florida Supreme Court expects Secretary of State Cord Byrd to include Rep. Debbie Mayfield’s name on the ballot in the planned Brevard County state Senate special election, the justices said Thursday in a 25-page opinion.
The court did not formally order Byrd to include her, instead saying it was “confident that the Secretary will promptly comply with this opinion no later than 3:00 p.m. on Friday,” the day military and overseas ballots must be sent.
Mayfield filed to run for the Senate seat, which she term limited out of in November, after Sen. Randy Fine announced he would run for former Rep. Mike Waltz’s seat in the U.S. House. She’d served in the state House for a matter of months.
Byrd blocked Mayfield from appearing on the Senate ballot, saying she would be violating constitutionally mandated term limits.
Byrd did not cite, not did the court find, “any source of law” that authorizes the secretary to determine whether a candidate is legally and constitutionally eligible for office, Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote.
Byrd’s role is solely ministerial, the court said — limited to verifying that the necessary forms have been submitted timely and properly.
Justice Charles Canady concurred but in a sharply worded opinion said the court should have ordered Byrd to comply in light of the “strikingly disingenuous” arguments his legal team offered in the case.
Canady pointed out that the statute Byrd cited to justify his action “expressly prohibits the Secretary from determining ‘whether the contents of the qualifying papers are accurate.’”
“It is indeed remarkable that the Secretary must be instructed on this elementary legal principle,” Canady wrote.
“This case has come to us because the Secretary has — without any plausible legal basis — taken action that threatens to disrupt the orderly and fair administration of the special election for Senate District 19,” Canady wrote.
‘Policy concerns over gamesmanship’
Mayfield signaled she believed Byrd disqualified her as political payback for her endorsement of Donald Trump over Gov. Ron DeSantis during his run to be the GOP presidential nominee.
The term limit argument Byrd attempted to implement is not in the law, the opinion stated.
“If the people of Florida want other limitations on the time their elected officials may serve, they can incorporate such language explicitly through the constitutional amendment process,” Grosshans wrote. “However, until they choose to do so, we cannot read a prohibition into the constitution that does not exist because of policy concerns over gamesmanship.”
The Constitution does not impose a specific period of ineligibility to serve in a legislative chamber, not does it impose a lifetime limit on service, she noted.
Mayfield’s earlier service in the Senate is “irrelevant” considering she is not in a “current term in office,” the scope required by the Constitution, Canady wrote. He called Byrd’s argument “meritless.”
When Mayfield left the Senate in November, that ended her consecutive terms. If she wins the Senate race, her consecutive years of service will restart, Grosshans wrote.
The primary for the Senate seat is April 1 and the general election is June 10. Mayfield’s resignation from the House is effective June 9.
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