Escambia Supervisor of Elections sued for disqualifying would-be opponent
Attorney Bruce Childers claims that when he left the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office on June 12 after filling out paperwork to qualify as a candidate to run against sitting Supervisor Robert Bender, a senior qualifying officer told him, "You're complete... You're all good."
It would not be until six days later, Childers wrote early Friday in a Facebook post, that he would find out that he was not, in fact, all good.
"On Thursday, June 20, I received an email from the qualifying officer, not even from Robert Bender himself, that I was disqualified because I 'failed to provide a copy of the full and complete financial disclosure Form 6,'" Childers wrote.
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Childers closed his lengthy Facebook post by vowing "this is not over," and early Friday afternoon he filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency declaration to get him back on the ballot in short order "qualified to run as a candidate for Superintendent of Elections."
Bender did not take questions Friday, but before the lawsuit was filed his office did send out a statement that quoted state statute and declared "Mr. Bruce Childers did not qualify as a candidate for the position of supervisor of elections."
"Mr. Childers’ full and public financial disclosure was not provided by close of qualifying, and Florida Statute §99.061(7)(a), requires a candidate qualifying for Constitutional office to provide a copy of the full and public financial disclosure Form 6 by the close of qualifying," the statement said. "The requirement is pursuant to the Florida Constitution and Florida’s election and ethics laws."
State statute does indeed call for "the full and public disclosure of financial interests."
The Florida Commission on Ethics website states that beginning with the 2022 form year, Form 6 must be completed electronically via the state's Electronic Financial Disclosure Management System.
Non-incumbent candidates like Childers are required, it said, to use the state system, abbreviated EFDMS, to register. They must then print and file the completed Form 6 with their qualifying officer, which in local races would be the Supervisor of Elections.
Childers' lawsuit states that "there appears to be confusion and some ambiguity in the implementation of the new statute," which is being used for the first time in a public election.
Supervisor of Elections Office staff, the lawsuit states, informed Childers that all he needed to complete the filing of a Form 6 was to turn in a summary page stamped with a watermark "showing the financial disclosures had been filed with the proper state agency."
Childers said he was convinced when he left the Supervisor of Elections Office on June 12, two days ahead of the deadline to qualify to run, that he had done everything necessary to have his named placed on the Aug. 20 ballot as a Republican candidate opposing Bender.
He said Sonya Daniel, the chief deputy in the Supervisor of Elections Office had worked with him to qualify and ran through a checklist of items that needed completing to get him there. When he left the office, he said, he had been assured he had indeed done all that was necessary to get on the ballot and later even saw his name posted on the Supervisor's website as qualified.
"What was a person to think when they tell you you're qualified, when they tell you everything is complete?" he asked.
Childers hinted in his Facebook post and within the lawsuit that he believes animosity between Bender and his wife, Escambia County Clerk of Court and Comptroller Pam Childers, might have played a role in what happened to him at qualifying.
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In 2022, Pam Childers blocked payments to a retirement plan that was contributing 57% of a county commissioner's salary to a 401(a) retirement account. The Escambia County Commission filed a lawsuit only to see Okaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Bill Stone rule in favor of the defendant, Childers.
As a result of the ruling Bender, who served on the County Commission from 2018 until being appointed Supervisor of Elections this year, had to return $143,491.18 he had earned through the retirement program.
The lawsuit also states that the Escambia County Supervisor of Elections Office had failed in its state sanctioned duty "to make a reasonable effort to notify the candidate of missing or incomplete items" within their qualifying documents "and inform the candidate that all required items must be received by the close of qualifying."
He said he turned in his qualifying information two days ahead of the deadline so that he could be alerted if problems arose.
The lawsuit claims Bender's office "either knowingly or mistakenly led (Childers) to believe he had properly filed all the necessary forms and paperwork," to qualify.
"The Supervisor of Elections, Robert Bender, allowed the qualifying period to lapse before notifying (Chilers) that it was necessary to file the Form 6, not just the receipt," it said.
Childers said as the Clerk of Court's husband he "had a front row seat" as information was brought to light about Escambia County Commissioners and the inappropriate retirement program Pam Childers refused to allow them to access.
"I knew what had happened with Bender," he said.
He said he stepped up to challenge Bender when it became apparent no one else would, adding that he believes what he has been put through could not only deprive Escambia County voters from deciding who is better suited to hold office, but also further diminish Escambia County government in the eyes of the public.
"The public has a right to know their elections are run fairly. To impugn the Supervisor of Elections Office like this is going to disillusion the people of this county," he said. "I think this is going to shatter a lot of peoples' faith in our democracy and election system."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Bruce Childers sues Escambia Supervisor of Elections Robert Bender
