Supervisor of Elections Bobanic defeats challenger Tobia, with over 59% of vote
Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic has defeated his challenger, Brevard County Commissioner John Tobia, and will retain his position for the next four years.
Bobanic received 59.62% of the vote, compared with 40.38% for Tobia.
“After years of committing myself to public service, tonight’s victory is a dream come true," Bobanic said in a statement. "I want to express my sincere gratitude to my family, friends, campaign support team and, most importantly, to the voters of Brevard County who helped make this dream a reality.”
Bobanic, a resident of Melbourne, was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the supervisor of elections position in September 2022, filling a vacancy created by the resignation of Republican Supervisor of Elections Lori Scott, who resigned in the middle of her term after nearly 14 years in that position. Before his appointment as supervisor of elections, Bobanic had been Scott's director of information technology and election services.
Tobia, a resident of Palm Bay, is finishing his second four-year term on the Brevard County Commission, representing South Brevard's District 3, He could not seek reelection this year to the County Commission because of term limits. Before his time on the County Commission, Tobia served four two-year terms in the Florida House of Representatives.
Legal issues involving candidates
Both candidates have faced legal issues.
Tobia's running of his County Commission office has been under intense scrutiny in recent months. A state prosecutor opted against filing charges against Tobia, after investigating a series of allegations of wrongdoing brought by a former Tobia employee.
Separately, Brevard County Property Appraiser Dana Blickley has put county officials on notice that she intends to file a lawsuit against Brevard County Attorney Morris Richardson and Tobia related to Tobia's use of the TruthFinder online database to look up information about individuals.
Blickley contends that the county and Tobia did not properly retain records of his use of the TruthFinder program — a program Tobia said he has used to vet applicants for county advisory board positions, current advisory board members and applicants for jobs in his commission office.
Tobia has denied the allegations.
As far as Bobanic's legal issues, a circuit judge on Monday afternoon dismissed a lawsuit filed against Bobanic over allegations of mishandled paperwork.
The suit, filed last month by Brevard political consultant and news website founder Robert Burns, sought a court order forcing Bobanic to remove two candidates from the ballot for Republican state committeeman, after Burns said Bobanic's office improperly accepted incomplete qualifying paperwork.
Circuit Judge Scott Blaue on Monday dismissed the case after finding that Burns didn't have a legal right to seek a court order compelling Bobanic to remove Randy Fine and Wayne Twiddy from the ballot, citing precedent from a list of cases. Fine won the election as Republican state committeeman on Tuesday, against three other candidates.
Brevard County Election Results 2024
Next in the race for Brevard County supervisor of elections
Bobanic will continue as supervisor of elections, because he will face only write-in candidate Sandra Cottrell of Melbourne in the Nov. 5 general election.
The supervisor of elections position has a four-year term and a salary of $184,356 a year.
Rick Neale and Eric Rogers contributed to this story.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at [email protected], on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
Results
With all 162 precincts reporting, here are the vote totals:
Bobanic: 35,713 (59.62%)
Tobia: 24,192 (40.38%)
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Election results 2024: Supervisor of Elections Bobanic defeats Tobia
