BRADENTON, Fla. — A controversy brewing in Manatee County has led to a tug-of-war over whether or not to hold an election.
The Manatee County Supervisor of Elections has been sued in a Florida Circuit court over a local school board seat.
The District 5 seat on the Manatee County School Board is at the center of the issue. The incumbent Richard Tatem announced his resignation at the end of May to run for the Florida House District 72 seat. Now, the former school board Chair James T. Golden wants to run for that seat but said the Supervisor of Elections denied his candidacy despite having met all the requirements to qualify to run.
"The law requires that since his resignation was submitted more than 10 days before the qualifying, then there must be an election for that seat also," James T. Golden, former chair of Manatee County School Board, said.
Golden who is a Democrat, has accused the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections James Satcher, a Republican, of unilaterally determining not to hold elections to allow the governor to appoint an ally to the seat.
He has criticized this move saying it amounted to a disenfranchisement of voters.
"This is an absolute, autocratic approach to what should be democratic and whether it extends beyond the Supervisor Elections, I do not know. But I do know that the Supervisor of Elections should be held accountable whenever he does not comport with the law," Golden said.
However, Satcher said he is in fact following the law as stipulated in the state's "resign-to-run law."
A June 11 document described as "an analysis on the sitting school board member's resignation and the implications of said pending resignation" which was sent in by Satcher's office stated the following;
"The current Resign-to-Run law deems an Office to be vacant upon the effective date of the resignation and because the remainder of the term of Mr. Tatum's school board office is therefore less than 28 months, the Florida Constitution provides for the vacancy to be filled via appointment by the Governor subsequent to November 5th for the remainder of the term.
This office has no leeway to disregard the Resign-to-Run law as amended in 2021 and to place the School Board office on the 2024 election ballot."
Golden disagreed with that interpretation, calling it an aberration of the law that violated the Florida constitution. He hopes the courts will settle the issue once and for all with his lawsuit.
"I for one will not stand by and let it go unquestioned. Hopefully, it will be consistent with trying to provide the people of Manatee County an opportunity to vote for their elected representative," Golden said.
Other organizations like the Manatee Democratic Party and the League of Women's Voters have called Satcher's action "unethical and potentially unlawful."
Golden's lawsuit is seeking a writ of writ of mandamus which would order Satcher to hold an election for the District 5 seat and qualify Golden's candidacy.