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Judge tosses injunction against Chris Anderson
A Seminole County judge has tossed the temporary injunction against Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson. Anderson was accused of blurring the line between his job and his re-election bid. On Monday, Anderson testified that his office serves as an early voting site, but he maintained that he never approached voters asking for votes.
SANFORD, Fla. - An injunction hearing will be held Monday morning after a judge issued a temporary injunction against the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections.
A judge issued a temporary injunction against the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections, Chris Anderson, for alleged campaign law violations.
"It's really an emergency when you do a temporary injunction," said Attorney Geoff Golub, who is not involved in this case. "It's an emergency injunction. So it has to happen right away. If it happened after the election, of course, it would be useless."
The preliminary injunction hearing is set for Monday morning.
"A civil injunction is when you want to restrain someone from doing something," Attorney Golub added, "It's only if there's no other adequate remedy at law, and obviously, for certain things, the only way to stop it would be an injunction."
The injunction states Chris Anderson allegedly had his name appear in the voting booth, which would violate Florida Statutes. It also alleges that he engaged and greeted voters within the 150-foot no-solicitation zone of polling places.
Seminole County called for an investigation into Anderson before the Florida Primary Election Tuesday. In letters sent to the Division of Elections and the Office of Elections Crimes and Security, the county attorney says it received evidence that shows the supervisor of elections included his name twice on the sample ballots, including one in the designated voting area, because he is up for re-election and a second time in the margin of the sample ballot.
The county says this is against Florida statute because sample ballots are supposed to look like a legitimate ballot.
"You look around the state, we don't see that same thing happening in the 67 counties," said Seminole County Commission Chair Jay Zembower. "I don't think you can count on one hand how many other supervisor elections have been this egregious and placing their name on so many things."
At Monday’s hearing, a judge will consider the facts and evidence before deciding whether the injunction is permanent.
FOX 35 Orlando reached out to Chris Anderson for comment on this story but did not get a response.