Carey Baker is the current, elected Lake County Property Appraiser. He is one of five Constitutional Officers in the county, with a four-year term, with election in the same years as the US Presidential election. Carey Baker was expected to be re-elected as Property Appraiser in 2024 because he was the ONLY qualified candidate UNTIL 30 minutes AFTER the deadline to register as a candidate. A group of people, promoting an unelectable candidate, devised an underhanded plan to remove Carey Baker’s name from the list of candidates on the November 2024 ballot, and surreptitiously insert another name. This is CLEARLY the workings of an unaccountable group, attempting to circumvent the voters of Lake County and install the candidate of their choice.
In order to get your name on the ballot in Florida, there are several steps that a potential candidate must follow. To be a Party candidate, you have to either pay a fee (which varies depending on the office), or collect signatures from registered voters (the number of which also depends on the office sought). Alternatively, one can file as a “write-in” candidate. In Florida, write-in candidates must also qualify in order for their votes to be counted and reported. But, the requirements for a write-in candidate are more simple: only filling out and submitting two forms – no fees, no signatures to collect.
Florida is known as a “closed primary” state. This means that Republicans vote for Republicans in the primary elections, and Democrats vote for Democrats. But, there is a twist. If all of the candidates in the primary are of the same party, this turns the primary into an “open primary,” essentially turning the primary election for that race into the general election. But, there is another quirk. If anyone else files and qualifies as a write-in candidate, the election MUST go to the general election. It matters not if the write-in candidate is of the same Party as the other candidates. This is the current situation in the Lake County Property Appraiser race. Mark Jordan as the Republican candidate against Carey Baker as the write-in candidate, who is also a Republican. But, his name and Party will not appear on the ballot.
When there is an uncontested election, the sole candidate who qualifies is automatically elected to that position. That candidate’s name never appears on the ballot. Election for that office never appears on the ballot. This happens more frequently than people realize. In 2022, in Lake County, there were 21 election contests. 14 of those had only one candidate qualify, who was automatically elected. They included School Board members Bill Mathias and Mark Dodd, and County Commissioner Leslie Campione. (Leslie Campione filed as a write-in candidate). In 2020, ALL FIVE of Lake County Constitutional Officers were elected without opposition: Peyton Grinnell for Sheriff, Gary Cooney for Clerk of Courts, David Jordan for Tax Collector, Alan Hays for Supervisor of Elections and Carey Baker for Property Appraiser. In that election, Carey Baker filed as a write-in candidate.
Now, to the heart of the matter:
The qualifying period for getting on the 2024 ballot was noon, Monday, June 10 until noon, Friday, June 14. The Qualifying Office for county level elections is the Supervisor of Elections. Candidates in line at the noon deadline on Friday are permitted to legally submit their forms after the actual deadline. This is where the line becomes blurred between what is legal and what is not. And this is when and where the deceptions of the Jordan Brothers Conspiracy come into play. Make no mistake, this was a well planned, well organized, and well executed plan to deprive Carey Baker of his proper place on the ballot, and his position as the chosen Property Appraiser for Lake County. But, the conspiracy extends farther than that, as the facts will demonstrate.
As he did in the 2020 election, Carey Baker planned to file as an unopposed, write-in candidate. To do so effectively, he had to time his actions carefully, as he well knew. Initially, Carey filed to run as the Republican candidate, potentially facing another Republican candidate in the Primary election in August. He filed the required documents and paid the $10,000 fee, and was listed as an active candidate for the office he already held.
On the morning of the final day of the qualifying period, Carey arrived in the office of the Supervisor of Elections at 11:20, intending to wait until the last minute to see if anyone else would file to run against him. Seeing none at 11:59, he withdrew his candidacy and re-filed as a write-in candidate for the same office, expecting to be automatically elected, saving his campaign donors their money.
What Carey did not realize is that when the Jordan Brothers arrived at 11:50, they were preparing to put their plan into action. Their plan was to be “in line” before the 12:00 noon deadline, so that Mark Jordan could surreptitiously withdraw his candidacy for the seat on the North Lake Hospital Board, for which he was the incumbent, and submit a new filing for Property Appraiser AFTER the deadline. More importantly, this had to be done AFTER they KNEW that Carey Baker had withdrawn his candidacy and re-filed as a write-in candidate. They HAD to do their dirty deed AFTER Carey Baker had left the building, making sure that he was unaware of what they were about to do.
KEY to the success of this devious plan was another related conspiracy, intended to overthrow the leadership of the Lake County Republican Party. Ana Germeroth was the operative handling this. She delivered a batch of 97 Republican Party qualifying documents one minute before Carey Baker submitted his new campaign qualifying documents. These documents, submitted by Ana Germeroth, totaling more than 160 pages, were time stamped starting at 11:58 and ending at 12:33. When looking at the big picture, it is clear that this dump of documents just minutes before the deadline was planned and coordinated to accomplish several purposes, including causing a distraction in the Qualifying Office, and separating Carey Baker from the deceptive filing by Mark Jordan.
Mark Jordan submitted his Republican Party qualifying documents AFTER the batch of 97 submitted by Ana Germeroth. His was stamped at 12:34.
Another interesting fact about the qualifying documents submitted by Ana Germeroth is that 13 of the 97 had a handwritten time on them in addition to the time stamp. These include:
• Robyn Dotson
• Charlotte Jordan
• David Jordan
• Debra Jordan
• Mark Jordan
• Wendy Jordan
• Thomas Lackey
• Jack Miller
• Jodi Miller
• Mary Scott
• Edward Swistack
• Dawn VanAlstine
• Randy VanAlstine
More interesting is the fact that out of this sub-group of 13 with a hand written time BEFORE the official time stamp, 10 were notarized by Michael Holland and 3 were notarized by Randy VanAlstine.
In total, in the batch of 97 sets of qualifying documents,
• Randy Van Alstine notarized 3, including Charlotte, Debra and David Jordan
• Amanda Wettstein notarized 8, including Jonathan and Ana Germeroth and Lourdes Buigas
• Lourdes Buigas notarized 10, including Monica Wofford
• Michael Holland notarized 12, including Mark and Wendy Jordan
• Ana Germeroth notarized 38
Important to note that Michael Holland, currently the Mayor of Eustis, is also on the paid staff of David Jordan in the office of the Tax Collector.
Another important connection is that Ana Germoroth is married to Jonathan Germeroth, who is employed by Lake Jem Nursery, which is owned by Keith Truenow. Ana Germeroth is the ONLY person who has been blocked from membership in the Lake County Republican Party in the past 5 years.
Obviously, each of these facts taken separately amount to little or nothing. But, in light of the final results, removing Carey Baker from office and replacing the Lake County Republican Party leadership, it is clear that there are powers in Lake County (and probably in Tallahassee) that do not want the citizens of Lake County to have a voice in either the Republican Party of Florida or in the halls of the state government.