A candidate’s bid for a Jacksonville city council seat could come to an end before Election Day.
The Duval GOP filed a lawsuit to remove Addison Liberty Patrick from the special election ballot for the at-large group 1 seat.
The Duval GOP is citing a new state law that requires candidates be registered with their party for at least a full year before qualifying.
However, Patrick says her campaign isn’t over until she hears from a judge.
“The closed primaries,” said Patrick while discussing her decision to switch parties. “If you want to vote, you have to change your party registration in order to vote. A lot of people do that. Democrats, Libertarian, Republicans do it so they can vote in a primary.”
According to the lawsuit, Patrick changed her party back to Libertarian in November of 2025, then filed to run for the Jacksonville city council.
“There’s rules to be qualified,” said Duval County GOP Chair Charles Barr. “You have to be 365 consecutive days of a party affiliation to run. We believe the candidate has not met that threshold.”
Barr is citing that new law that took effect in April.
The law wasn’t approved until several months after Patrick changed parties, it had just been filed as a bill in October.
“We just see that as a way for them to stop competition and prevent the voters from having a right to choose,” said Patrick.
“We’re just wanting to follow the law, and the law says you have to be qualified and we feel she’s not qualified,” said Barr. “I can’t control when legislation does stuff. I don’t have any part in that.”
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland pointed out this all surfaced only about 50 days before election day for the position on August 18th.
“Every election brings its own problems, complications, and this one obviously has one too,” said Holland.
Holland said ballots are going out to overseas voters next week and vote-by-mail voters soon after, so they likely won’t be redone with the outcome of the lawsuit.
“We do our best to notify the voters, whether it be in the voting booth or in a note in the vote by mail ballot that this candidate is no longer qualified, if that’s the court’s decision,” said Holland. “It makes a complicated election tabulation.”
Patrick filed a motion to dismiss, arguing among other things, the new law doesn’t apply to the at-large race in Jacksonville because it’s not a closed party primary, and she’s not seeking nomination as a candidate of a political party.
“There’s some ambiguity in the language,” said Patrick. “We’re firmly in the camp with constitutional law that the government doesn’t get to decide who our candidates are. We get to decide who are candidates are.”
Patrick said she’ll be back in court July 1st for a chance to review both sides with judge.
First Coast News emailed the other two candidates in the race, Republican Deborah Wesley and Democrat Mone Holder, for a response to the lawsuit.
Wesley shared the following statement:
Commander Deborah Wesley believes voters benefit from having choices at the ballot box and that our elections are strongest when candidates can make their case directly to the voters. We’re not familiar with the specifics of the lawsuit, and it’s ultimately up to the court to determine how the statute applies. After 35 years in law enforcement, she has dedicated her career to upholding the rule of law and respects the judicial process to resolve questions like this fairly.