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Why won’t they let the people of District 79 decide?

By Staff | Aug 6, 2014

As mandated by the statues of the state of Florida and through the Division of Elections, on June 17, 2014, I sent my qualifying paperwork via Certified First Class Mail to the DOE at 2:19 p.m., from the Lehigh Acres post office.

The postal service delivered the documents to Tallahassee ahead of schedule, sorting and placing my parcel in the DOE’s mailbox at 8:44 a.m. on Thursday, June 19. The “qualifying” period began on Monday, June 16, and ended on Friday, June 20, at noon.

Previous cases brought before the court regarding when a document is considered delivered has consistently held for the time when the mail is placed in the mailbox or delivered to the intended party. Because the DOE does not accept mail delivery at their office location, case law dictates, mail is considered delivered at the time the mail is placed in the mailbox.

According to said case law, my mail was considered delivered to the DOE, 27 hours and 16 minutes prior to the deadline. This was verified by the Tallahassee Postal Office were the DOE receives its mail.

All attempts to obtain a reasonable explanation from the DOE have consistently been met by changing accounts of when the mail was picked up, missed or the latest explanation that the postal office would not release the mail to them. The one constant in this unconstitutionally sad affair has been their refusal to admit an error was made. An egregious error, which could have easily been corrected 43 days ago.

The undeniable fact in this case is the mail was in Tallahassee next day on Wednesday, June 18, and less than 800 feet from its intended destination.

According to the DOE, they want you to believe it took more than five days for a package to be sorted and delivered to their mailbox, in the same building. They have offered no evidence as to how that scenario is possible and I submit they won’t offer any.

I have initiated legal action against the DOE as it is the only recourse they have allowed me. Their non-action has cost my campaign 43 days of zero fundraising, zero events and zero phone calls as they have unconstitutionally shut down the Larry Aguilar Campaign.

The fourteenth amendment, under Procedural Due Process states, “When the government seeks to burden a person’s protected liberty interest or property interest, the Supreme Court has held that procedural due process requires that, at a minimum, the government provide the person notice, an opportunity to be heard at an oral hearing, and a decision by a neutral decision maker (judge).”

Today I am appealing my case directly to the people of District 79 as there is no higher order, no higher authority to make the final determination. I appeal to the voters of my district to tell Judge Keith R. Kyle to get to work on this important case which impacts a critical election. Let the people decide, isn’t that what a democracy is supposed to do?

I urge you to contact the office of Judge Keith R. Kyle and ask him to act expediently and justly in this case as afforded me and every other American under the U.S. Constitution.

Judge Keith R. Kyle, (239) 533-9152, Lee County Justice Center, 1700 Monroe St. Fort Myers, FL 33901.

Larry Aguilar sought to run for State Representative District 79 in the Aug. 26 primary election.