Dr. Cindy Banyai (D), Congressional Candidate calls for petition postponement due to COVID-19

COVID-19 Responders, photo courtesy of Ted Williams, AP

Congressional hopeful from Florida’s 19th district calls on Gov. DeSantis to direct Florida’s Department of State – Division of Elections to postpone the date for qualifying petitions.

Fort Myers, March 11, 2020 — For anyone looking to get their name on a Florida ballot there are two ways of going about it – petitions or paying. Congressional candidates may either pay a fee of $10,440 or they may submit petition signatures from their district totaling at least 1% of the registered voters in that district (for District 19 that is equal to 5,052 signatures). March 23rd is the latest that any petitions signatures can be handed in to the local supervisor of elections for verification.

However, the current outbreak of COVID-19 and the mounting health concerns for the global community is making this task of collecting signatures a near impossible venture. That is why Dr. Banyai is calling on Governor Ron DeSantis to direct Florida’s Department of State – Division of Elections to cancel the March 23rd verification submission deadline and the April 20-24 general qualifying period in order to give smaller campaigns a fighting chance of getting on the ballot. Banyai has said that “by not waiving or extending the deadline for candidates to reach their petition numbers, you are effectively disenfranchising many grassroots funded candidates who are unable to pay for the filings fees. Governor DeSantis has already declared a state of emergency amid the spread of the coronavirus and he needs to step up to allow enough time for candidates to strategize about the next steps for their campaigns and ways to keep their communities safe.”

Dr. Cindy Banyai is running as a fully funded grassroots candidate. She is not taking money from big corporate PACs and is relying on the generosity of neighbors and friends to help get her elected. To date she has over 450 individual donors with an average contribution amount of about $50. Her goal since entering the race has been to collect enough signatures in order to place her on the ballot.

For more information, press only:

Eddie Thinger

(239) 351-5574

communications@cindybanyai.com

For more information on Cindy Banyai:

cindybanyai.com