A Clay County School Board member embroiled amid a contentious run-off for re-election filed suit Tuesday seeking a court order to disqualify her opponent — alleging she doesn’t live in the district up for election on November 6.
Our Florida Times-Union news partner reports Ashley Gilhousen, who’s seeking a second term representing Clay County School Board District 5, filed a lawsuit against her challenger Lynne Hirabayashi Chafee and county Supervisor of Election Chris Chambless in Clay County Circuit Court.
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Gilhousen also filed for an emergency injunction forcing Chambless to de-certify Chafee as a qualified candidate and remove her name from the ballot for the race.
Striking Chafee from the ballot, however, might be problematic. The ballots already are printed and early voting begins Friday Oct. 26 and continues through Nov. 3 in Clay County.
Circuit Judge Gary L. Wilkinson is assigned to preside over the case but no hearing date had been scheduled as of 5:30 p.m., according to the court docket.
In her lawsuit, Gilhousen alleges Chafee lives on Fleming Island, which is outside District 5, which she is running to represent on the School Board.
Gilhousen also accuses Chafee of using the address of property she owns in District 5 as her home address when she filled out the paperwork to run for the School Board seat although that wasn’t her residence, according to the suit.
Florida law requires that School Board candidates actually live in the district they are running for when they qualify for the election.
A longer version of this story is available on Jacksonville.com.
