Scott Maddox won reelection to Tallahassee's City Commission in the primary election held at the end of August. Now Erwin Jackson, the owner of Jackson Properties, is challenging that vote in Leon County Circuit Court.
UPDATE 9/14/2016 4:16 p.m.
Newly reelected Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox is fending off a challenge to his election. Local businessman Erwin Jackson alleges Maddox doesn’t live within the city.
Maddox owns a home on Meadow Wood Court just outside Tallahassee city limits, but he lists a rental property on North Adams Street downtown as his permanent residence. He uses the downtown address for his voter registration and driver’s license as well. But Erwin Jackson, who owns Jackson Properties, says Maddox doesn’t live there.
“Now for the past four years Scott Maddox has told us when this issue came up oh well I don’t live here in this big nice house I live in my office building,” Jackson says.
Jackson is contesting the August 30 election that gave Maddox another term on the City Commission.
But Maddox is defiant. He contends he does live in the downtown residence and he fires back at Jackson’s methods.
“It’s clear that our residency is downtown,” Maddox says. “This is the latest attempt.”
“Mr. Jackson is trespassing on private property,” Maddox adds, “he’s taking pictures of my children, and it ought to be stopped. I’ve filed a trespass complaint and I’m moving forward with a restraining order, and the price of public service should not be that you have to subject your children to stalking.”
Jackson says he never trespassed on Maddox’s property because he was in his car on a county road. This isn’t the first time Maddox has faced scrutiny over residency. It came up when he ran for City Commission in 2012, too.
Jackson filed his complaint in the Leon County Circuit Court.
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Jackson's complaint alleges Maddox's primary residence is a home outside city limits which would make him ineligible to serve. Maddox claims a rental home* next to his office on North Adams Street as his residence on his driver's license and for his voter registration.
Correction: the original version of this story referred to Maddox's residence as his office. The residence is a home next door.
