- November 17, 2024
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The Florida Elections Commission has dismissed all charges filed against County Commissioners George Hanns, Barbara Revels and Charlie Ericksen by former elections supervisor Kimberle Weeks, declaring them legally insufficient.
Weeks had filed the Elections Commission complaints several weeks before resigning from her position as elections supervisor in January.
She also filed an Ethics Commission complaint and a Florida Bar complaint against County Attorney Al Hadeed, and Ethics Commission complaints against County Commissioners Ericksen, Nate McLaughlin and Frank Meeker. Those cases are still pending.
Weeks’ resignation followed repeated clashes with Palm Coast and Flagler County officials, and the opening of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into her conduct.
Her Elections Commission complaints against the three commissioners totaled more than 100 pages through two submissions, and Weeks continued to pursue them even after she’d left her elected position, according to an email Hadeed sent to commissioners April 23 to update them on the outcome of the case.
The Elections Commission found Weeks’ claims against the commissioners legally insufficient March 10, but gave her a chance to submit additional material.
She did.
The Elections Commission still found the evidence insufficient.
Formally closing all three cases, Elections Commission Executive Director Amy McKeever Toman sent a succinct letter to Weeks on April 21, writing: “Your amended complaint makes the same essential allegations that were made in your original complaint. The narrative you provided in support of your amended complaint does not correct the grounds of legal insufficiency, but merely reargues the issues presented in the original complaint and disputes the finding of legal insufficiency. As such, I find your complaint, as amended, to be legally insufficient. …This case is now closed.”
Weeks’ complaint against Revels stated that Revels, as an alternate Canvassing Board member, had refused to sign an elections report required by law. The Elections Commission found nothing in Florida law that required Revels’ signature on the form.
In her charges against Hanns, Weeks alleged open records law violations in the handling of Canvassing Board matters involving the County Commission, and wrote that Hanns had endorsed Meeker — who ran successfully for reelection this past season — while serving as a member of the Canvassing Board. A mailer Meeker’s campaign sent out had a quote attributed to Hanns endorsing Meeker, but both men said Hanns never uttered it and that it was attributed to him in error.
The Elections Commission responded that it had no jurisdiction over the open records law charges or the relationship between the Canvassing Board and the County Commission, and that there was not sufficient evidence that Hanns had actually endorsed Meeker.
Weeks’ accusations against Ericksen alleged that his alternate membership on the Canvassing Board was illegal and that he’d refused to step down after news of a contribution to Meeker’s reelection campaign was discovered. Ericksen had stepped down: He was replaced by Revels.
Weeks also wrote that a private conversation between Ericksen and Hadeed that she’d recorded surreptitiously without either man's knowledge showed a felony violation of the state’s Election Code.
The Elections Commission wrote that Ericksen was not required to step down and that there was no legal penalty for not stepping down, and found that Hadeed’s conversation with Ericksen was speculative and not evidence of illegal activity on Ericksen’s part.
Weeks had also alleged that Hanns and Ericksen, in requesting state observers to monitor last year’s elections, had violated a statue regulating who could request observers. The Elections Commission found that there was nothing in state law preventing the commissioners from requesting state observers.
