Editorial Board: Here's our endorsement for Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
This might be the easiest endorsement of 2024.
With years of experience and a proven track record, Tim Bobanic earns the FLORIDA TODAY endorsement for Supervisor of Elections.
Bobanic started out in 2009 at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, where he served as the IT director for four years before moving to Brevard County to work for then-supervisor Lori Scott. He held that position for 10 years.
When Scott retired in 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Bobanic to finish the remainder of her term. With more than 15 years in elections administration and 31 elections, Bobanic has the experience and know-how to continue as supervisor.
He's even had the experience of seeing two elections end in exact ties, one in Hillsborough and one in Brevard.
"I like to always talk about that story because, you know, when somebody says, 'oh, my, one vote doesn't count', I can tell you that in those two elections, one vote would have made the difference," Bobanic told the editorial board during a recent interview.
His opponent, County Commissioner John Tobia, declined our invitation.
In 2020 Bobanic earned the distinction of FCEP, or Florida Certified Election Professional, which requires more than 30 classes over a number of years to achieve. It is a nationally-recognized program that is optional for Florida Supervisors. There is a long waiting list to be admitted into the program.
The 2022 election was Bobanic's first as Supervisor of Elections and he came through with flying colors ― 99.9% accuracy in the 7.9 million votes (ovals marked on ballots) and 549,000 ballots.
"It's all about transparency and it's all about having that integrity in the voting systems and with the audit system," Bobanic said.
When the state legislature mandated more transparency in the signature matching process with Senate Bill 90 in 2021, the Brevard office wrote its own program and it allows observers to come in to any one of the four Brevard offices and view the envelope images as well as the corresponding voter signatures.
"The program was so popular that we won an award from the Federal Elections Assistance Commission in 2023 for outstanding innovation and elections for that signee program," Bobanic said.
They say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Well, not only is the Brevard Supervisor of Elections operation not 'broke' but it's thriving. It thrived under Lori Scott and it has been thriving under Tim Bobanic.
Another of Bobanic's initiatives is a program he calls "Your Vote is your Voice." The goal is to educate high school junior and seniors and get them to register to vote.
"The 18 to 25 year old age bracket is the lowest turnout of all of the age brackets and I've really been making a push to try to get that engagement," Bobanic said.
More: Tim Bobanic sworn in, starts new era as latest Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
Bobanic also honors a Brevard County veteran every month, highlighting their service, awards, medals and then asking them why voting is so important.
Bobanic hopes this will help inspire younger voters to come out and vote to honor the sacrifice that the men and women in the military made to make sure they have that right.
What impressed us most about Bobanic is his commitment to ensure fair elections for all of Brevard whether voters are in his party or not. His opponent often seems to put politics first. One example: the entry of a so-called "ghost candidate," ― last-minute write-in candidate Sandra Cottrell ― to close this GOP primary to all but Republican voters. Tobia refused to comment on her candidacy, but it's worth noting that Bobanic said he saw Tobia's former aide, Ritch Workman, a former state house representative and Tobia's former director of community affairs, accompany Cottrell to qualify. Workman was connected to a ghost candidate who appeared in Tobia's 2020 primary race against Republican challenger Kathy Meehan for County Commission District 3.
There's nothing illegal about using that maneuver to close a primary, but our Editorial Board finds it distasteful. Why would anyone want to vote for a supervisor of elections who would try to keep more than 40 percent of the electorate from voting?
Bobanic wants to expand the electorate while Tobia wants to minimize it.
Tobia was also the recent subject of a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, in which two of Tobia's current staffers backed up allegations that Tobia had his workers doing non-county business while on the clock. Tobia called it a 'witch-hunt' and no charges were filed. But the statements made by his staffers to investigators certainly raised questions about Tobia's stewardship of taxpayer money.
The Supervisor of Elections post needs someone with experience and a track record of getting their job done, politics aside.
There is only one candidate on the Aug. 20 primary ballot worthy of your vote for Supervisor of Elections ― Tim Bobanic.
This editorial was written by the FLORIDA TODAY Editorial Board, which consists of Executive Editor Mara Bellaby, Engagement Editor John A. Torres, Sports Editor Tim Walters and Sr. Marketing Director Gina Kaiser.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida Today endorses Tim Bobanic for Supervisor of Elections
