Judge Kyle Cohen has requested a hearing between the attorney’s for John King and the recallers for this Thursday to clarify how to move forward with the recall. The issue is whether Council member John King’s recall votes will count. The hearing will take place at 10:30AM.
Unless Judge Cohen sends an order to the Lee County Elections office with clear direction to discard any recall votes for King, they plan to proceed with the recall as if King is on the ballot. We received this e-mail from Elections Supervisor Tommy Dyle Monday: “Our office has not received an official court order to not count John King’s votes. We are proceeding with the election as planned.”
King believes Cohen’s ruling removes him from the ballot. While King’s name cannot actually be removed from the physical ballot because they’ve already been printed, Doyle’s office has also said if Cohen gives them direction that King’s recall is no longer valid, they will explain this to voters in the voting booth with a posted sign.
The recallers believe Cohen’s ruling – which they plan to appeal – only allows King’s lawsuit to move forward. The only reason King filed the lawsuit in the first place was to have his name removed from the recall ballot. Recall committee chair Bill Veach tried to get Cohen to reconsider his ruling on King but that was quickly rejected.
Cohen ruled that the third item on King’s recall petition was “fatal” because it did not specifiy which town employee the recallers allege King tried to get fired. And, Cohen stated, if one of the accusations in the petition is invalid, the entire petition must be thrown out. Cohen also ruled that Karen Woodson’s petition was valid and her recall could move forward. Woodson denies all the accusations in the recall and is appealing the ruling. She’s also filed a defamation lawsuit against Ray Murphy, the co-chair of the recall committee.
Another interesting question: If King is ultimately removed from the recall election, how would that impact the nearly 400 ballots already sent in by mail? How would Doyle’s office know who the voters would have chosen first if Karen Woodson is recalled being they were told to choose two people on their already submitted ballot.
The recall election is one week from Tuesday.
Both seats are up for election in 2026 no matter who’s sitting in them.
Ed: do you know??? If a person has a permanent residence on the island but is still displaced and living in temporary housing in Fort Myers, can that person still vote the recall election on FMB? He was told from an election official in Bonita that he cannot vote in FMB. That didn’t seem right to me!