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Lawsuit Jeopardizing Pasco Primary Dismissed

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: July 9, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco elections officials are rushing to print and mail out absentee ballots after a lawsuit filed in connection with a County Commission race was dropped today.

Pasco Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley had feared thousands of absentee ballots for the Aug. 26 primary might be delayed until after July 17. That had been the date of a court hearing over the lawsuit.

The hearing was canceled shortly before 3:30 p.m. today when the plaintiffs, Steve Byle, a registered Democrat from Hudson, and Deborah L. Lopez, an independent from Zephyrhills, voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit. John Taylor, a candidate in the District 1 Pasco Commission race, and Corley had been listed as defendants in the legal action.

The lawsuit challenged the validity of Taylor's write-in candidacy. The absentees couldn't be printed until Taylor's status as a candidate was determined.

The dismissal of the lawsuit leaves only Republican candidates in the primary, incumbent Ted Schrader and challenger John Nicolette.

In a quirk of Florida's closed primary system, Taylor's status as a write-in candidate in the November's general election keeps Democrats and other non-Republicans from voting in the August GOP primary, from which the winner of the District 1 race is likely to emerge.

"Reaching the far corners of the globe is problematic," Corley said about getting absentee ballots into the hands of troops and other Pasco residents overseas.

The absentee ballots were supposed to start going out July 3, Corley said. He now hopes to have them in the mail by this Saturday, July 12.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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