Is Rebekah Jones eligible for Florida office? Judge to hear arguments next week

Peggy Schiller's lawsuit challenging Rebekah Jones' eligibility to be on the 2022 ballot will go before a Leon Circuit Court next week.

During a hearing held virtually Friday, Circuit Court Judge John Cooper set Aug. 5 to hear arguments from both sides on whether Jones can run for office as a Democrat.

Schiller and Jones are seeking the Democratic Party nomination for Florida's 1st Congressional District currently held by Republican Matt Gaetz.

Lawsuit filed: Opponent files lawsuit against Rebekah Jones challenging eligibility

Who is Peggy Schiller: Anger drove Walton County's Peggy Schiller to run against U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz

Schiller is a retired corporate attorney who lives in Walton County and has been active in the local Democratic Party there.

Jones is a former Florida Department of Health employee who helped develop the state's COVID-19 dashboard and was fired during the pandemic.

Jones alleged Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration was manipulating case data. A subsequent state inspector general report released earlier this year found no evidence of wrongdoing based on Jones' allegations.

Jones, who became a nationally known public figure during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, disputes the findings of the report.

Schiller and an Escambia County voter filed a lawsuit July 15 alleging Jones was not a registered Democrat a full year before qualifying for office as required by a new Florida law passed last year.

The lawsuit alleges that while living in Maryland in 2021, Jones registered to vote in the state in April 2021 as a Democrat. She then changed her party affiliation to "unaffiliated" on June 11, 2021.

The documents show Jones changed her affiliation back to Democratic on Aug. 11, which would mean Jones missed the registration requirement by about two months.

Jones has disputed the veracity of the documents to the News Journal and has said that she has been a registered Democrat since 2016.

Rebekah Jones running: Democrat Rebekah Jones says she can win in Northwest Florida

Final ballots: Final ballot! Here are your candidates for every local 2022 political race

However, the documents filed in the lawsuit are certified copies from the board of elections in Montgomery County, Maryland, showing Jones with an unaffiliated status for a two-month period last year.

After the hearing Friday, Jones' campaign issued a statement on its Facebook page declaring victory in the case while also noting the hearing set for Aug. 5.

"This is about election integrity," Jones said. "Every vote must count, and we are seeing to that."

J.C. Planas, Schiller's attorney, told the News Journal that no decision was made in the case on Friday other than setting Aug. 5 as a final hearing.

Planas said they are waiting for clarification from the court if the hearing will take place virtually over zoom or in the courtroom in Tallahassee.

Schiller's campaign also put out a statement explaining why the campaign decided to file suit.

"The Schiller campaign did not seek out the information demonstrating Jones's ineligibility for candidacy; the evidence was presented to the campaign by an anonymous source earlier this month," the statement said. "Schiller's team acted in the best interest of the Democratic Party, further investigating this allegation to determine if it was true. Documentation was uncovered proving Jones is not eligible for candidacy based on her voter registration history."

In the statement, Schiller said ignoring Jones' ineligibility to be on the ballot in Florida would cede the race to the Republicans in November because they wouldn't hesitate to challenge Jones' qualifications.

“We are bringing this information to light not to be malicious," Schiller said. "If Jones, as an ineligible candidate, is allowed to have votes cast for her and potentially win the primary on August 23rd, Republicans will most definitely pounce on this public information to have her removed from the ballot following the primary."

Last week, a Pinellas County Circuit Court judge disqualified a Republican candidate in a case with similar circumstances.

Republican candidate Austin Brownfield, who had only switched from a non-party affiliated registration to a Republican in March 2022, was ruled ineligible to run in the House District 57 race.

Brownfield had been registered previously as a Republican for more than a year, but the judge found that because Brownfield had not been a registered Republican for 365 consecutive days before the candidate qualification period, he did not meet the qualifications under the new law.

Ballots for the Aug. 23 primary have already been printed, so if Jones is ruled ineligible, the judge will have to issue an order to the supervisors of elections not to count votes casts for Jones in the race.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Rebekah Jones, Peggy Schiller case goes to Tallahassee judge on Aug. 2