An election fraud lawsuit challenging the results of the August congressional Republican primary between Daniel Webster and Laura Loomer has been dismissed “with prejudice,” which means it cannot be refiled in the same court.
Leon County Circuit Judge Angela C. Dempsey granted a motion by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit on Nov. 11.
The dismissal came three days after the 11th District general election, which incumbent Webster won over Democrat Shante Munns with 63 percent of more than 320,000 votes cast.
In the primary, Webster won by more than 5,000 votes or about 7 percent over Loomer, who refused to concede. Loomer carried Sumter County, but fell short in Lake County.
The plaintiffs claimed that Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays sent out thousands of mail ballots that were returned due to bad addresses, but counted in the election.
They also claimed that Lake, Sumter, Orange and Polk counties failed to maintain accurate voter registration rolls. They alleged that some people voted more than once and that votes came from non-Florida residents.
The lawsuit requested that the Aug. 23 primary be declared invalid and that a runoff be scheduled between Webster and Loomer.
Plaintiffs were Anne Marcotte, Fletch Keller, Rick Carlins, Michael Levine and Theresa Rinadli. Rinadli later asked to be removed because she said she did not witness election fraud, but her name remained on the dismissal order.
They were represented by John Pierce, who represents several Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants, and local attorney Jerrod Williams.
Defendants were the Florida Election Canvassing Commission, Webster, losing candidate Gavriel Soriano and elections supervisors Hays, William Keen of Sumter County, Bill Cowles of Orange County and Lori Edwards of Polk County.
It was Loomer’s second congressional defeat. In 2020, she lost to incumbent Democrat Rep. Lois Frankel in Florida’s 21st Congressional district.
