OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – NOTE: This story originally appeared in the Osceola News-Gazette.
In response to Florida’s Division of Elections and Department of State’s stance that State Rep. Paula Stark did not properly qualify for the 2026 election ballot, the two-term Republican said Tuesday she plans on suing the state boards for the right to run for re-election.
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Stark met with members of the Osceola County Republican Executive Committee late Tuesday afternoon to inform county Republican leaders of her intent to take legal action.
“I’ve been upset since Friday,” she said. “I’ve been feeling like I’ve let everyone down.”
The word from the state elections division is that Stark did not submit all items necessary for qualifying. Stark referenced an incident at the Division of Elections counter when filing her forms Friday in Tallahassee.
“They were in the process of having security remove an individual that was causing disruption of the process and had backed up close to a dozen other candidates who were in line to also submit their paperwork,” she said. “Thus, the normal operation of the process appeared to be potentially disrupted, as they were trying to clear up the backlog of applicants.”
During the day Friday, the deadline for candidates in all Florida races to qualify for the ballot, her status on the Department of State’s website was listed as “Active” rather than “Qualified.” Early Friday evening, her name disappeared from the list, leaving just Democrats Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves shown as qualified. Should Stark, the only Republican who filed to run, not get on the ballot, then Figueroa and Nieves would face off in an open primary on the August ballot that all voters in District 47, regardless of party, would vote in. Had she qualified, Stark would have faced the August winner in the Nov. 3 general election.
Nieves, who also ran for the District 47 nomination in 2022 and 2024, said he reached out to Stark over the weekend to make sure her not qualifying wasn’t health-related.
“She’s still my representative,” said the Buenaventura Lakes resident. “It was surprising and concerning. But if August becomes an open primary, we’re still going to do what we’ve been doing, knocking on doors and getting our message out.”
When reached about her status Friday, Stark assured the News-Gazette she had filed her candidacy paperwork, even showing copies of her State Candidate Oath form and receipt of her financial disclosure filings, called the Form 6 by state election officials, which she filed electronically Thursday. Her stance Friday afternoon, prior to her name disappearing, was that the state’s website was still processing candidate forms from around the state.
Stark said that when she handed in her candidate oath form at the Division of Elections, she also handed in the printed Form 6 digital receipt — and it was handed back to her.
“We thought that since we had electronically filed it, they didn’t need (the Form 6 hard copy),” she said. “They handed it back to us. We filed the same forms two years ago (during her 2024 reelection bid).”
Stark’s partner and campaign treasurer, Joel Davis, is also the chair of the Osceola County Republican Executive Committee. He said they’ve sought legal advice and will file a civil suit in Leon County, where Tallahassee is, at their own expense, of what Stark said could be $30,000.
“We are looking forward to a favorable outcome,” Stark said.
Stark faces a tight window. Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington said primary ballots need to be sent to the printer by the end of next week in order to mail them to military personnel overseas following the July 4 holiday, then send them locally to those requesting mail-in ballots.