Florida Judge Will Be Publicly Reprimanded for Election Actions

A Florida circuit judge who made his preference for a county judicial candidate well known before the 2020 elections will be publicly reprimanded, the state’s supreme court ruled Thursday.

Judge Scott Cupp of Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit made unsolicited calls to acquaintances in Hendry County to let them know he supported the challenger in the race for county court judge, instead of the incumbent, according to the court’s order.

Cupp’s judicial circuit includes Hendry County. He asked some of the people he contacted to also support the challenger, and his preference “eventually became widely known in the community,” the ...