Florida, all about election integrity, can’t tell if a Republican broke an election law? | Editorial

Just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis made a big, bold speech about “election integrity” — and announced his plan to create a new state force to investigate voter fraud — his administration is still trying to figure out whether a member of his own party was eligible to run for office.

Jason Mariner is a candidate running in a congressional district that leans so heavily Democratic he has virtually no chance of winning. Perhaps that’s why he might have slipped through the cracks. Still, the state has no excuse for not determining whether he was eligible to be a candidate before he won the District 20 GOP primary on Tuesday. It appears the DeSantis team wasn’t even aware of Mariner’s potential eligibility issues until they were reported in Herald and other media outlets.

Mariner has a criminal record that he has been candid about, saying it stemmed from drug addiction. Under Florida’s clemency rules, he could’ve had his rights restored automatically as an ex-felon — including the right to hold political office — had he submitted a formal application.

The problem is, he didn’t — and he has been candid about that, too. That a person running to represent people in Congress wouldn’t think to ensure he’s qualified to run is, itself, baffling. But we’re not surprised given how Mariner told the Herald Editorial Board during a candidate interview last month that hammers kill more people than guns (fyi, they don’t).

We can’t always rely on candidates to have common sense or knowledge. That’s why Florida has a Division of Elections and a secretary of State to ensure elections run as intended — remember, those were the officials Donald Trump’s supporters harassed in 2020 when they didn’t get the results they wanted. But it appears no one bothered to check Mariner’s status — until the news story came out.

DeSantis’ office said Thursday that, in response to questions from a reporter, lawyers in the governor’s office were quickly trying to determine whether the state’s rules requiring restoration of civil rights would apply to a Florida candidate for federal office, according to a story by Fresh Take Florida, published in the Herald.

It’s been three days since Mariner won his Republican primary, and we are still wondering? So much for election integrity.

If he’s eligible, Mariner will face the winner of the Democratic primary — who has yet to be determined pending a recount — to replace late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings.

The irony is not lost on us that, despite the GOP’s unsubstantiated claim that there’s widespread election fraud, in Florida, the only two known instances when election integrity came into question involved Republicans. The other case involves former GOP state Sen. Frank Artiles, who allegedly paid a sham candidate to sway a Miami-Dade County race for state Senate last year. Artiles is awaiting trial.

This is a serious issue, but we’re kind of chuckling on the inside at the irony. Just a little.

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 12:03 PM.