An Osceola County commissioner candidate who lost an election in August is suing to have the vote declared invalid, arguing that the third-place finisher was a “ghost candidate” who was bribed to siphon off Hispanic votes.
Jackie Espinosa filed the lawsuit in the Ninth Judicial Circuit Sept. 8, naming two other candidates in the District 4 commission race – incumbent Cheryl Grieb and Carlos Irizarry Sr. – as defendants.
“This election contest is based upon misconduct on the part of defendant Irizarry and others where he was given or offered a bribe or reward in money, property or any other thing of value for the purpose of procuring the successful candidate’s election for District 4 Osceola County commission” in violation of state law, Espinosa’s legal complaint states.
Grieb garnered 3,629 votes (48.38%), while Espinosa received 2,919 (38.91%) and Irizarry 953 votes (12.7%).
Espinosa claims Irizarry told her during a telephone conversation that he had been offered funds by supporters of Grieb to oppose Espinosa, according to the lawsuit. In addition, Irizarry did not live in District 4 at the time of the election, a violation of the Florida Constitution, the complaint says.
Mary Jane Arrington, the Osceola County supervisor of elections, who was also named as a defendant, said she could not comment on pending litigation. But Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said having the election overturned based on a ghost candidate scenario would be difficult, though not unprecedented.
“Having said that, if what she alleges is true, then the lawsuit may still shed additional light on the practice of recruiting ghost candidates in Florida even if it does not result in a new election,” Jewett told the Florida Record in an email.
The reasons that the election would likely not be declared invalid are twofold, he said.
“First, the legal system very rarely intervenes to overturn election results – even when there has been some election fraud or illegal or unethical behavior,” Jewett said.
If a legal means to invalidate an election involving a “ghost candidate” were available, it would have already been presented, he said.
“I think we would have already seen an effort to overturn the 2020 District 37 Senate race from South Florida where incumbent Democrat State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez lost that race by 37 votes after a ghost candidate was recruited with his same last name that ultimately got more than 6,000 votes,” Jewett said.
In that case, the Democratic Party opted not to file a lawsuit to overturn the election, which involved a ghost candidate named Alex Rodriguez.
There have been a couple of cases when Florida election results were overturned, however. In 1998, a circuit judge invalidated the results of a Miami mayoral race after fraud and criminal conduct involving absentee ballots were alleged, according to Jewett.