The would-be city commissioner withdrew from the race early. But an error allowing her to run nearly went unnoticed.
By Noah Bookstein
Original Air Date: August 18, 2026
Host: A Sarasota City Commission candidate withdrew from the race this summer, citing reasons unrelated to her eligibility. But records show she wasn’t eligible to run in the first place—and the system almost didn’t catch it. Noah Bookstein looks at whose job it was to verify her residency and how the election safeguard nearly failed.
Noah Bookstein: Jaime Loomis briefly ran for one of the two at-large seats on the Sarasota City Commission this year. She gathered petition signatures from sitting commissioners, city staff and local business figures, particularly in insurance and real estate. She appeared at a candidate forum alongside the other hopefuls and, for the better part of a month, was a contender for the commission.
There was just one problem: By the city’s own charter, she did not qualify to run at all. Sarasota requires candidates to have lived in the city for at least one year before taking office. Records show Loomis didn’t return to Sarasota until early May, just weeks before qualifying closed.
According to the Supervisor of Elections, verifying residency and actually determining whether a candidate qualifies to run for the city commission is the City Clerk’s responsibility.
The Supervisor’s office routinely issues candidate petition certification letters to inform the clerk of the number of petition signatures a candidate has received. The supervisor also includes voter registration information that may be used by the clerk to determine residency.
The Supervisor of Elections office responded to a request for information and, along with documents reviewed by WSLR News, detailed the error that almost resulted in an ineligible candidate appearing on this summer’s ballot.
A staff member at the supervisor’s office was out in an emergency, leaving a replacement employee to send the city clerk a letter that included incorrect residency information regarding Jaime Loomis.
The clerk’s office did catch a problem, with Deputy City Clerk Lori Rivers noticing a discrepancy in the certification letter claiming 32 valid petition signatures while her office had only 12 on hand. Her review did not catch the residency error. A Sarasota resident, John Simon, filed a formal challenge, claiming Loomis’s residency information was incorrectly reported. Simon said that, because Loomis had lived in Indian River County from February 1, 2022 until May 4, 2026, she fell short of the year of Sarasota residency the city charter requires to make a run for the commission.
Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner
Rivers forwarded the residency question to election officials, asking them to review and advise. Once the challenge came in, election officials quickly confirmed Simon was right and issued a corrected letter. Ron Turner, the Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, then called City Clerk Shayla Griggs to discuss the correction.
Paul Donnelly, a spokesperson for the Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, told WSLR News that they are updating their procedures to reduce the likelihood of this happening in the future.
The Clerk’s office, when asked by WSLR about its role, offered only a general statement, saying “The Office of the City Auditor and Clerk is committed to upholding election integrity and complies with all laws, policies and procedures—including coordinating with the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections.”
The clerk’s office did not answer specific questions about how residency is actually verified or what its process caught or missed in this case.
The City shared that, when the corrected information about the qualified elector requirements was received, the Clerk immediately contacted Loomis to inform her she did not meet the qualifications to be placed on the ballot.
Loomis withdrew shortly after the fiasco on June 11—but publicly gave a different reason, telling WSLR News earlier that, when a business opportunity arose, she felt she could not pass it up.
Jaime Loomis via LinkedIn
Jaime Loomis: It’s a lot to put yourself out there in front of people who agree with you, who don’t agree with you, who have been doing it for a lot longer—so it was a challenge, but I think it was a great challenge for me personally and professionally.
NB: Loomis did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.
Residency and eligibility requirements exist so voters can trust that everyone on the ballot is actually qualified to hold office. Without the challenge, Loomis’s name could have appeared on the August ballot—despite her not meeting the city’s own residency requirement. Votes cast for an ineligible candidate can create complications, including contested results and further legal challenges.
Commissioner Kyle Battie, advisory board members and city staff who signed Loomis’ petition did not respond to a request for comment. Commissioner Liz Alpert, who also signed the qualifying petition, told WSLR News she “was not aware of the residency issue until [she] heard [Loomis] had not qualified.” Alpert said “if [she] had known there was an issue, then [she] would not have signed the petition.”
Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.
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