GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -The ballot is set for Gainesville’s municipal election, but one potential candidate says he was locked out of qualifying.
Friday morning, Tayari Appiah showed up at City Hall to retrieve his candidate packet and get his name on the ballot for the Gainesville City Commission At Large seat. He was met by a security guard who denied him access and told him the deadline was at 5:00 PM instead of noon. Appiah returned around 1:00 PM to have a different security guard tell him he missed the deadline, tough luck.
“At that time he got the City Clerk along with another male and they proceeded to go get the City Attorney and upon that conversation they also told me that their hands were kind of tied even though they agreed that I was telling the truth, and that they knew that the security guard had barred me from coming in,” Appiah tells TV20.
Appiah is attempting to run against Gail Johnson for the at large seat. According to the city website, candidates must pick up their qualifying packet from the Clerk’s office.
“I had some papers with me already, I had about 3 or 4 papers, but I needed the rest of the papers physically from this office,” Appiah said. “So not only did he bar me from coming in, he also told me the wrong deadline.”
Appiah is represented by Raemi Eagle-Glenn, who ran for county commission in the most recent election. She says the acts against Appiah are egregious.
“He’s unable to access his government building to exercise his constitutional right to run for office,” Eagle-Glenn said. “We are filing a lawsuit, we are in the stages of drafting the complaint. I am speaking with senior councils. We will be suing the City of Gainesville Manager, the Clerk and Mayor. Also the private security company, the Supervisor of Elections and the Department of State Divisions of Elections.”
While at City Hall, Appiah tried to gain entry to get the required documents again, but was denied access a second time. TV20 reached out to the city for comment on the matter, and received a statement that said “The City of Gainesville is aware of the affidavit and will respond promptly if a formal complain is filed.”
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February 02, 2021 at 06:19AM
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Gainesville man denied entry to City Hall on last day to qualify for elections - WCJB
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