Melissa Blazier (right) fills out her own paperwork to qualify as Collier County Supervisor of Elections in July 2023. (Photo: CCSoE)
June 20, 2024 by David Silverberg
New details and strikingly different versions of events have emerged in the increasingly heated and vehement debate between Collier County Supervisor of Elections (SoE) Melissa Blazier and Republican Party state committeeman, farmer, grocer and political activist Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III.
The argument centers on the disqualification of Oakes from the Aug. 20 Republican Party ballot for state committeeman.
To briefly recap: all qualifying documents for candidates for the Aug. 20 primary—for all parties—were due by noon, Friday, June 14. Oakes’ documents were submitted after noon. Blazier sent Oakes a letter informing him he had not qualified for the ballot.
The details of the filing, disqualification and the reasons and motivations for it are at the center of their very different versions of events.
Facts: The Oakes account
According to a June 18 statement from Oakes on Republican state committeeman letterhead:
“I filed my notarized candidate oath and qualifying documents last week during the primary election qualifying period. These documents were accepted by Collier SOE staff, and confirmation of my successful qualification was given to multiple people on my team.
“Then, approximately ten minutes before the 12:00 PM filing deadline, I received a call from the SOE alleging that my qualifying documents did not meet proper standards. Despite this being blatantly untrue, I immediately hurried to the SOE office to sign the additional documents that they requested. All documents were accepted and processed by the SOE at 12:04 PM.”
Facts: The Blazier account
According to a June 18 press release issued by the Supervisor of Elections (SoE) office and quoted here verbatim:
“The law allows candidate qualifying documents to be provided to this office 14 days prior to the beginning of the qualifying period which was noon, June 10 through noon June 14 (prequalifying began May 27). Mr. Oakes chose to wait until after 11 a.m. on the last day of qualifying (the busiest time in this office during the qualifying period) to have a third party deliver his qualifying documents. No one in the Supervisor of Elections office confirmed to Mr. Oakes or any member of his team that he had successfully qualified as a candidate for State Committeeman at that time. Handing paperwork over to a staff member is not tantamount to being qualified.
“Immediately upon discovering multiple errors with his submitted qualification documents, my staff and I made several attempts to contact Mr. Oakes and his team beginning at 11:36 a.m., as documented in our call records. The calls were neither answered or returned until 11:51 a.m. when Mr. Oakes finally returned my call. Mr. Oakes then arrived to our office at 12:04 p.m., after the qualifying deadline, to submit the correct qualifying forms which were timestamped upon completion at 12:08 p.m.”
Following the closing of the qualification period, Blazier sent a two-sentence letter to Oakes stating: “Pursuant to Florida Statute 99.061 the candidate qualifying documents that were received in the Supervisor of Elections office were not properly filed. Therefore, you did not qualify for the Republican State Committeeman position.”
Motivations and disparagement
Oakes’ account did not stop at a factual recitation. He immediately made accusations, attacked Blazier personally and disparaged what he believed to be her motivations.
“The claim by Collier County Supervisor of elections Melissa Blazier that I failed to properly file my re-election paperwork for Republican State Committeeman is a flat out lie,” he stated. “This is the latest (but not the first) act of fraud by Melissa Blazier. The simple truth is that this is nothing more than a desperate attempt from Melissa Blazier to remove me from the ballot for one of her campaign’s mega-donors. It is downright despicable.”
He continued: “The fact is this: The qualifying documents I provided during the qualifying period more than met the standard laid out by the Florida Secretary of State as well as the Republican Party of Florida. Melissa Blazier is illegally using her position to circumvent the election process in favor of her campaign mega-donor, my opponent, Doug Rankin.
“Make no mistake: this is election interference at the highest level in Collier County. It is happening before our very eyes.”
Blazier was equally direct, if more formal: “The allegations Mr. Oakes is circulating which seek to place the blame on this office for his failure to qualify for Republican State Committeeman are unfounded and without merit.”
After her recitation of facts she stated: “Mr. Oakes, now irresponsibly, is blaming this office for his shortcomings and the shortcomings of his team in getting himself qualified in a proper and timely fashion. Mr. Oakes knew precisely what needed to be done and the timeframe to do it in, as exemplified by his timely and proper filing for this same position in 2020. The law and requirements have not changed since then.
“All decisions are objective. The role of this office in reviewing candidate qualifying documents is dictated by the law. Our role is ministerial. It is either right or wrong, timely or untimely.
“I have worked in this office for over 18 years in various capacities, including now as your Supervisor of Elections. This office has and will continue to have the highest ethical standards. Do not be fooled into believing that party rules take precedent over state statutes and state administrative rules. There is no fraud. There is no racketeering. All the actions taken by this office in this matter, and all matters, are justifiable and done in accordance with the law.”
Electoral considerations
Oakes, who has a long history of litigiousness, is now expected to sue the Supervisor of Elections office to get on the ballot. In the past he has sued the Lee County School Board, the Collier County School Board, and Collier County for decisions he disliked and this one is expected to be no exception.
“I intend to utilize every legal avenue available to stop this fraud and allow the voters’ voices to be heard in August,” he stated. “From top to bottom, this is the most important election in the history of our nation. We must fight back against the current corrupt administrative state that exists at every single level of government.
“We will continue our fight for our constitutional inalienable rights, and we will never back down!”
Blazier for her part was equally adamant: “As a constitutional officer, I am bound by the laws of the State of Florida. That is the ultimate responsibility in ensuring the integrity of elections. To bend to the outrageous and untrue statements being made about this matter would forever tarnish the reputation of this office and my position. The voters of Collier County expect that this office will uphold Florida’s elections laws and ensure the integrity of the electoral process, which is what my staff and I will continue to do.
“Do not be misled by Mr. Oakes’ attempt to cast aspersions on me and this office by deflecting. Mr. Oakes is ultimately responsible for his failure to properly qualify for placement of his name on the ballot.”
Analysis: Florida Rashomon
As of right now, Oakes is off the ballot and Blazier’s decision is final and supported by law.
If, as is probable, Oakes follows the example of his mentor and idol, convicted felon Donald Trump, he will proceed to court no matter how weak his case or how expensive the cost of litigation.
(It should also be noted that this is not the first time Oakes has evidenced inattentiveness to process and procedure. He has long been criticized by county Republicans for a lackadaisical approach to his committee responsibilities and missing numerous meetings, according to Party activists. At one point Party members considered writing to the state Party to call for his removal, but the letter never materialized. In Oakes’ case against the Lee County School District, it was revealed that the chief reason the District canceled his contract was because his company failed to file paperwork acknowledging that it followed any anti-COVID protocols.)
The situation is complicated by the fact that both parties are up for election to their respective positions.
Douglas Rankin, the attorney and former committeeman whom Oakes defeated four years ago, and who properly filed his paperwork and is on the ballot for the committee position, had no sympathy for Oakes.
“He is the one trying to get her to commit an election irregularity,” Rankin told Dave Elias, political reporter for NBC2 News. “The rules really do apply to everybody, including him. They had the good courtesy to move heaven and earth and call him to get his mouth down there, and do what he should have done days or weeks earlier,” he said.
Doug Rankin. (Image: NBC2)
Oakes’ other opponent, Frank Schwerin, was more forgiving: “My contention is that he submitted paperwork indicating a desire to run for a state committee position. It was notarized,” Schwerin told Elias. “The voters in Collier County should weigh in on who they want to represent them as the Republican Party of Florida. I'm running to give them a choice,” he said. (Note that Schwerin did not say the paperwork was proper or qualified.)
Frank Schwerin. (Image: NBC2)
Blazier is facing her own challenges in the race for the Supervisor of Elections job.
Until Friday she was facing two opponents in the Aug. 20 Republican primary, Tim Guerrette, a former chief of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, and David Schaffel, a former information technology technician, who is backed by Oakes.
All were Republicans, and since the primary could have been the deciding election it would have been “universal” or open to all Collier County voters.
However, Edward Gubala, a former firefighting captain and close ally of Guerrette, applied and qualified at the last minute as an independent write-in candidate, thus closing the primary to all but Republicans.
Candidate Tim Guerrette (left) and supporter Edward Gubala (right) in Guerrette campaign regalia. Gubala qualified as an independent write-in candidate for Supervisor of Elections, thus closing the primary to all but Republicans.
In his own statement on Oakes’ disqualification, Guerrette called for an independent investigation of the incident, without drawing conclusions.
For his part, prior to being disqualified, Oakes had scheduled a discussion of election integrity for June 27 at the Naples Hilton. It is advertised as featuring Dave Schaffel, his candidate for Supervisor of Elections, and Douglas Frank, a prominent 2020 election denier and voting fraud conspiracist, who has been called “The Johnny Appleseed of election fraud.”
General admission tickets are $50.
The 2024 Collier County “I voted” sticker design by Alayna Gruber, a 7th grader at East Naples Middle School. (Art: CCSoE)
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© 2024 by David Silverberg