The election for Supervisor of Elections in Collier County has been muddied by allegations of questionable conduct among some candidates.
What’s happening points to a flaw in the elections system, known as “ghost candidates.” It increasingly is used in Florida to manipulate outcomes, which in some cases has led to election violation charges.
The contentious contest between the Republican incumbent supervisor, Melissa Blazier, and two GOP newcomers with no elections experience has taken a twist that will play out in the Aug. 20 primary.
The other two GOP candidates are Tim Guerrette, a retired chief with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, and Dave Schaffel whose background is in information technology.
A write-in candidate, Edward Joseph Gubala, who is a real estate associate broker, filed and qualified before the qualifying deadline June 14. His name can be written on the ballot by voters in the Nov. 5 general election. There are no Democrats in the race.
More: Three-way contest for Collier Supervisor of Elections: Does incumbent have a sure thing?
The more immediate consequence of his candidacy is it limits voting to Republican voters only for the three Republican candidates in the primary. It shut out registered Democrats and “other” voters unless they switch to register as Republicans by a July 22 deadline ahead of the primary.
In Florida, if all the candidates are from the same political party and the winner of the primary won't face any opponents in the general election, then all registered voters can vote for any of the candidates in that primary race. But even one qualified write-in candidate changes that.
How many can't vote in the race?
As of July 3, the write-in candidate has shut out 119,126 voters from casting their choice in the race, which is nearly half of Collier’s 256,940 registered voters. A break down is 52,454 Democrats and 66,672 “other” voters. It leaves 137,814 Republicans to decide the outcome.
Write-in candidates who enter races but don’t campaign are called “ghost candidates” where their intent appears to be closing contests to voters from one party or another.
It is not illegal yet some candidates and party operatives have been accused of violating election laws by illegally funding the races and filing false reports, according to a 2022 report by Integrity Florida, a government watchdog group.
Integrity Florida detailed how three state Senate races in 2020 were impacted by “ghost candidate” activity that crossed the legal and moral line, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Down the road: Former St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara admits role in 2020 'ghost candidate' case
She said, he said
Blazier believes Gubala intentionally filed as a write-in candidate to benefit Guerrette, a friend. She provided screenshots from Gubala’s Facebook page of posts of Guerrette’s campaign.
Gubala has not responded to several phone calls or emails. He has not promoted a campaign website or raised money for a campaign.
He posted on the Collier supervisor of elections website a candidate’s statement with his biography outlining his residency in Naples since 1976, years as a firefighter/paramedic and how today he is an associate broker.
Guerrette said in an email he does know “Ed” as a fellow public safety professional.
“Unfortunately I do not know the answer as to why he is running, you will need to contact Ed for that information,” Guerrette said. “I have not advocated for any candidate but myself to run for Supervisor of Elections, my integrity is second to none and it will always remain that way,” he said.
What he sees as “factually” unethical is that Blazier attempted to insinuate “one of her opponents felt the need to close the primary by using a friend.” He does not say the opponent in question is himself.
He said her next move was questionable.
“So she casually instructed voters how to change their party affiliation prior to the August 20 primary and switch it back in her desperate attempt to rally for votes,” Guerrette said.
This may be her right in her role as the supervisor of elections “but in my opinion she crossed the line and inserted her position into her own personal campaign,” he said.
When a voter makes a change to their party, it will become part of the voter’s permanent record which voters may not be aware of, Guerrette said.
Blazier said it is her job as elections supervisor to educate voters on how they can be active participants in elections. Discussing how voters can change their party affiliation during primaries is not a new topic for her office.
Many voters moving to Florida are not familiar with the closed primary system and don’t realize until it’s too late they are not eligible vote in a race due to party affiliation, she said.
She made a post June 13 on her personal Facebook account about one of her opponents who felt the need to close the primary contest with a write-in candidate. The move disenfranchises more than 116,000 registered voters in the race.
“Shouldn’t ALL registered voters have the choice of who their Supervisor of Elections is? I guess not,” she wrote. “Moral of the story, folks, if you are not a registered Republican by July 22, you will NOT be eligible to vote in the Supervisor of Elections race in Collier County. Check your registration status now and be election ready!”
What does the third GOP candidate say?
Schaffel said in an email “it is likely that another campaign was involved in this episode” involving the write-in candidate.
Guerrette has been running his campaign on “ethics and integrity” yet has been lobbing relentless personal attacks at Blazier, Schaffel said.
Earlier in the campaign, Guerrette provided part of a Collier arrest report to the Naples Daily News for Blazier when she was 18. She had found a credit card in a parking lot and charged $881 at a local department store.
He said the records in the Clerk of the Courts website were sealed or removed just ahead of election season.
Blazier admitted to the credit card use and said a forgery charge was dropped. Adjudication was withheld on a misdemeanor charge.
Her parents thought the records were sealed in the immediate aftermath. When it was discovered that had not happened, the steps were taken in August 2023 to seal the records, Blazier said.
In essence, Schaffel said Guerrette’s campaign tactics are evident.
“So his campaign pulling this off isn’t a shock nor surprise,” Schaffel said about the write-in candidate. “While it is legal, in my opinion, it is anything but ethical.”
Schaffel said he will run on the issues of election integrity and not engage in dirty politics.
What can be done about ghost candidates?
There is no recourse in the form of a complaint against write-in candidates, acting as ghost candidates, to halt their actions of closing voting and swaying outcomes, Blazier said.
“While this is a highly unethical practice, this is a loophole in Florida election law. One that is being badly abused,” she said.
Schaffel said the actions may be unethical but remain lawful.
“Complaints instead need to be made to the Florida Legislature for allowing this loophole to exist at all,” he said.
His position is that only members of a party should vote in their respective primary. If a party does not find a candidate that it believes worthy of the elected position, it is the party that is disenfranchising their own voters, he said.
“I already worked tirelessly for election integrity reform bills in Tallahassee in the last session, and I would be happy to add to my list a revision in the law to make all party primaries exclusive to party voters exclusively with no exceptions,” Schaffel said.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Collier County Florida Elections Supervisor: Ghost candidates in Naples
