Election suit over after 3 years
Appeals court rules for Ed Brimner in lawsuit over 2020 property appraiser in which Colby Sparkman lost by 3 votes
The 2020 candidates for Wakulla Property Appraiser included Colby Sparkman, left, and Ed Brimner.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
The First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee last week upheld the Wakulla Circuit Court judge’s ruling finding that Ed Brimner was properly elected as property appraiser in 2020.
The DCA’s ruling was released Tuesday, July 18, and said simply” Per curiam affirmed,” which means that the appeals court affirms the trial court’s decision without issuing an opinion or explanation of its own.
In February of last year, Wakulla Circuit Judge Ron Flury granted a summary judgment to the Wakulla County Canvassing Board and Property Appraiser Ed Brimner finding that Colby Sparkman, who was a candidate for property appraiser against Brimner in the 2020 election but who lost by four votes, presented no evidence that he would have won the election but for alleged misconduct.
The judge noted the lawsuit is “based on the treatment of 12 ballots out of 9,104” ballots cast in the race. The 12 ballots represented the number of votes rejected by the canvassing board because the signature on the vote-by-mail ballot did not match the signature on file.
Sparkman’s attorney, Mark Herron, argued at a hearing held by Zoom back in February 2022 that the 12 ballots were not able to be cured because of misconduct by the supervisor of elections and the canvassing board. That included not telling voters whose ballots were rejected the correct amount of time they had to cure the problem, and telling Sparkman that he should not contact the 12 voters.
But Judge Flury wrote that, during the election, a total of 53 ballots had signature problems. “Of those 53 ballots,” the judge wrote, “41 were cured.”
One of the 12 ballots, belonging to Debra Russell, was cured in a timely manner, but because of the narrow vote margin, she asked that her vote not be counted because it would reveal how she voted. The canvassing board accepted her appeal and did not count her vote.
“No evidence has been presented that shows the precluded ballots favored any particular candidate,” Judge Flury wrote in his order. “Factually, the mathematical probablity of a change in the result here is nonexistent.”
At the hearing last year, attorneys Leonard Collins, representing Brimner, and Wayne Malaney, representing the canvassing board, acknowledged that errors were made with the election, but contended there was no fraud and no effort to help one candidate or another.
The judge agreed: “There is no evidence to suggest that there was an ulterior nefarious motive that actually drove the canvassing board’s decision. There is no reason to overturn the will of the people as expressed in the election results presented.”
Sparkman appealed the judge’s decision in March of 2022.
In the meantime, Sparkman did get a settlement in his lawsuit for wrongful termination. Sparkman was a deputy property appraiser under Brad Harvey, who was removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis after his arrested in 2018 on embezzlement and fraud charges. Harvey has pleaded no contest to the charges and faces a maximum sentence of 30 years when he is sentenced in September.
After Brimner was installed in office in January 2021, he subsequently fired Sparkman for cause.
Much of the controversy in the case arises from Sparkman being told not to contact any of the 12 voters with the rejected ballots. He asked for and was given the names of the voters and acknowledged in deposition that he had called one, but couldn’t remember who it was.
A voter called County Administrator David Edwards with concerns about Sparkman calling voters, and Edwards called two canvassing board members – County Judge Jill Walker, and County Commissioner Quincee Messersmith. Both said the issue would be brought before the canvassing board and then-Supervisor of Elections Buddy Wells.
Edwards walked over to Wells’ office and confronted the elections supervisor “cussing and raising Cain,” according to Wells’ deposition.
Wells said he overreacted to Edwards’ concerns by instructing then-Deputy Supervisor of Elections Joe Morgan to call Sparkman and order him not to call voters.
It was later acknowledged by Wells that that was a mistake, that Sparkman was entitled to call voters to alert them to problems with their ballot if he wanted to.
The election night had more drama when Sparkman was initially declared the election winner by 16 votes before Wells realized that a number of precincts had not been counted in the race. After those votes were tallied, Brimner was declared the victor by four votes.
After a recount by the canvassing board a few days later, the margin was narrowed to three votes for Brimner.
Ben Lovel was a third candidate for property appraiser along with Brimner and Sparkman.
