Report claims congressional candidate Kathy Castor illegally entered Tampa polling place - FOX 13 Tampa

Candidates spar over reported polling violation.

Jordan Bowen reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Congressional candidates Kathy Castor and James Judge are in a political back-and-forth over a report that Castor illegally entered a polling place last week in Tampa.

It happened at the Jan Platt Library and now her office is responding with its side of the story.

Castor’s office said she went to the library last week to vote, but once inside, she realized she didn’t have what she needed, so because of that, she left. However, according to a report filed with the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office when a worker asked her if she was there to vote, she said no instead saying she was there with a film crew to do an interview about early voting.

The office of U.S. Representative Kathy Castor responded to a report filed by a clerk with the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office. It stated on October 24 "Candidate Kathy Castor entered the polling room through the back exit door, she was approached by a poll worker if she was voting she replied no I was just walking through."

It went on to read, "I then approached her and asked her if she was here to vote. She said no. I asked her, and you are, She said Kathy Castor I then told her she was not allowed in the polling room, and I would accompany her out".

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"I'm not sure why she would do it," said James Judge, candidate for Florida 14th Congressional District. "She's been in Congress since 2006. She should know better than this. She's also an attorney."

Congressional candidates James Judge and Kathy Castor are arguing over whether or not she made a polling violation.

Judge, who is Castor's opponent, held a news conference Thursday morning outside the Platt Library where it happened.

"She was here for self-described reasons as being here to encourage people to vote, I think that a crime may have occurred," Judge said.

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As the report explains, she violated the 150-foot exclusion zone which prohibits candidates from campaigning or being within 150 feet of a polling location unless they're there to vote. The report goes on to say Castor "replied she was not there to vote but was there for an interview."

Castor's office emailed a statement to FOX 13 Thursday afternoon explaining what happened. Here's her full statement in its entirety:

"James Judge has been spreading lies and untruths about Congresswoman Castor for many months. He is an outlier candidate whose values do not reflect this Tampa/St. Petersburg-based district. In a particularly callous move, after the mass shootings of elementary school children in Uvalde and in Highland Park on the Fourth of July, he raffled off AR-15 assault weapons to fund his campaign. He has tried to hide the fact that he does not live – and cannot vote – in the district. In fact, he lives two districts away, lacks understanding of the values of the district, and cannot even vote for himself.

Last week Congresswoman Castor encouraged the press and voters to join her at the Jan Platt library to encourage voters to take advantage of the convenience of voting early. All campaigning occurred outside of the designated exclusion zone. She was wearing no campaign stickers, holding no campaign signs and had no campaign literature with her at any point inside the exclusion zone. Nor did she talk to any voters. Unfortunately, she did not have what she needed at the time to vote, and like any voter who enters a polling place and does not have what they need, she exited.

Judge is too extreme to represent Tampa and St. Petersburg, and his failure to be truthful with voters during the campaign disqualifies him from representing our community."

The Tampa Police Department confirmed to FOX 13 Thursday Judge did in fact file a police report about what happened. Police will be meeting with the Supervisor Elections Office to figure out who will be in charge of investigating the matter.

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Castor's office wants to make it clear while she was there she did not do any campaigning and did not speak with any voters.

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