Allegedly forged bank account document at center of Supervisor of Elections case 

Attorney Dan Helm, Democratic candidate for Orange County Supervisor of Elections, in a July 11 court hearing accused his opponent, Cynthia Harris, of forging a campaign bank account document to conceal that her qualifying fee payment came from a personal, rather than a campaign account.

“She forged this document for the purpose of interference with the court process, and that's a big no no,” Helm said. 

The hearing, before Chief Judge Lisa Munyon of the Ninth Judicial Circuit, was on a temporary injunction Helm had filed to have Harris quickly removed from the ballot and make the Aug. 20 primary a universal primary, open to all voters. 

Muyon denied the injunction, stating that Helm hadn’t produced evidence that Harris had paid her fee from a personal account. But she still set a trial date for Aug. 13, just seven days before the Aug. 20 primary election. 

It’s the latest twist in a lawsuit that may ultimately see Harris taken out of the race, the primary for the Supervisor of Elections canceled and the race rescheduled for the general election on  Nov. 5.

Primary ballots are printed and have been mailed to military and overseas citizens. The first-wave of mail-in ballots for Orange County residents who requested them were mailed out July 17. Christopher Heath, spokesperson for the Orange County Supervisor of Elections (OCSE), told VoxPopuli Thursday that reprinting and shipping new primary ballots to reflect Harris’ disqualification could cost from $250,000 to $1 million. The election logistics will be decided at the trial.

“I'm not trying to upend the election,” Helm, who is representing himself, told VoxPopuli in an interview. “I'm trying to make sure that actually the election has the integrity it deserves.”

Together with Helm, the Supervisor of Elections race includes Democrats Karen Castor Dentel, a member of the Orange County School Board; Sunshine Linda-Marie Grund, a realtor; and former Orange County Democratic Party Chair Wes Hodge.

Harris is the only candidate without a party affiliation.

Helm’s campaign could benefit from a universal primary, according to Aubrey Jewett, PhD, associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. He said the larger pool of voters in a universal primary can mean a win for a Democratic candidate that can “appeal across party lines,” particularly if Harris is removed from the ballot. However, in a straw poll taken during the July 11 African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida Hob Nob, Helm came in last, with 8 votes out of 142 ballots cast. Harris came in third place, with 16 votes, lagging behind Castor Dentel and Hodge who were in a virtual dead heat with 46 and 45 votes, respectively.

Three Banks 

On June 27, Helm filed a  lawsuit against Harris, alleging that her $7,736.76 campaign qualifying fee came from a bank account that was not listed on her campaign finance paperwork. He contends that Harris paid her fee from a personal account, which would disqualify her from the race under Florida Statute 99.061. The lawsuit also named the current Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean. 

Harris denies using a personal account to pay the fee. She said she was using three banks for her campaign: Additions Financial, Fairwinds Credit Union and TD Bank. 

Initially, she filed paperwork — called a DS-DE 9 form — in October 2023, identifying Additions Financial as her campaign bank account. But Harris’ attorney Joseph Davis, told the court that she decided not to use this account. 

On May 28, she re-filed the paperwork, indicating that she was replacing Additions Financial with Fairwinds Credit Union as the bank for her campaign account. 

Here’s where things get murky. Harris claims she submitted a third DS-DE 9 form for TD Bank as another campaign account on the same day that she filed the Fairwinds Credit Union paperwork. In her motion to dismiss Helm’s lawsuit, she submitted a TD Bank form with the May 28 date into evidence. 

However, OCSE never filed the TD Bank form for Harris. Heath told VoxPopuli he does not know why the form is not on file. The form has an OCSE stamp on it. 

No Authority

On June 14, the qualifying deadline, Harris submitted a check from TD Bank labeled as coming from a campaign account. Heath told VoxPopuli that the office approved the check because “Campaign Acct” was written at the top, and it was signed by her campaign treasurer, which in Harris’ case was herself. She is listed as her campaign treasurer on all documents filed by OCSE. 

OCSE did not verify whether the TD Bank check matched the bank listed on her campaign banking paperwork form, which was Fairwinds. Helm told VoxPopuli that OCSE should have realized the TD Bank check did not match the form they had on file and notified Harris per the Supervisor’s Handbook on Candidate Qualifying. 

Heath said OCSE does not have the authority to determine whether the bank account listed on a qualifying check or a DS-DE 9 form is actually a campaign bank account. The Florida Department of State regulates campaign finances for non-federal Florida elections. He explained that candidates can file a primary and a secondary campaign account. But the field designating the accounts as primary or secondary was left blank on Harris’ forms for both the Fairwinds Credit Union and TD Bank.

Harris maintained at the hearing that she submitted both forms on the same day because she wasn’t sure which one to use, VoxPopuli learned. She claimed that she doesn’t know why OCSE doesn’t have the TD Bank form. 

But after seeing the TD Bank form Harris submitted into evidence, Helm responded with allegations that the form was created only after Helm brought the missing form to her attention. He told VoxPopuli he believes she duplicated and altered the Fairwinds Credit Union form to represent TD Bank. 

“I think that the record will show that she did not submit these forms to the Supervisor of Elections and that, in fact, the form that she submitted to the court at this point that has TD Bank listed is a doctored form,” he told VoxPopuli.

Helm claimed the timestamp on the two forms created by an automated machine in the OCSE office appear identical in time and in placement, something he said wouldn’t occur because the forms are fed through one by one. Harris said at the hearing that she has no idea how the identical stamps happened. 

Helm pointed out that the forms for other candidates have stamp variations (Castor Dentel’s two DS-DE 9 forms contain OCSE stamps from the same date that are a minute apart from each other and have a slight variation in placement.) He also claimed that Harris’ signatures on the TD Bank form are identical to her signatures on the Fairwinds form. “People don’t sign the identical signature” on separate forms,” he said. 

Helm told VoxPopuli he took a signature training course from OCSE where he learned about signature matching in anticipation of becoming the next supervisor of elections. During the hearing, Helm was questioned about his expertise in signatures, and ultimately he admitted he’s not an expert on signatures. 

“I'm not a document forensic expert. I want to be clear about that,” Helm told VoxPopuli. He said he plans to get an expert to make a determination for the case. 

Helm filed a motion for fraud on the court used in civil litigation. He asked the court for a default judgment, meaning that if Harris is found guilty of fraud, she would lose the case entirely. Helm also said the motion means he can be awarded attorneys fees for the costs of the lawsuit. He asked the court to cover the cost of litigation should Harris be found guilty. Any criminal punishments for the civil court case would have to come from the court, Helm said. 

Harris did not respond to calls and text messages from VoxPopuli for additional comment about the hearing or the forgery allegations.

July 22 is the last day to register to vote or change your party affiliation. Distribution of vote-by-mail ballots began Wednesday. The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Aug. 8. Early voting begins Aug. 5 and runs through Aug. 18. Check our list for locations.