It's been a crazy week for Pinellas County Democratic congressional candidate Nina Hayden.
After being ruled off the ballot earlier this week by Secretary of State Ken Detzner, Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis today granted Hayden a temporary injunction and said she should be put back on the August 14 ballot, where she is running against Jessica Ehrlich in the Congressional District 13 Democratic Primary race in Pinellas County.
The Division of Elections office had said that Hayden failed to qualify because of a problem with her paperwork in filing to run, specifically that the notary did not sign the notarization of her qualifying form, as required by law. Because she filed just an hour before the deadline last Friday, the error was not found until after the deadline passed. Thus Detzner determined that she had failed to qualify for the office and instructed Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark to take Hayden's name off the ballot.
But Judge Terry Lewis in his ruling today wrote that the law does not require strict compliance with all statutory requirements under all circumstances.
