PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer): Palm Bay voters approved the only city question on Tuesday’s ballot, and they approved it everywhere. The charter amendment on filling City Council vacancies passed with 64.69 percent of the vote, and the Yes side carried all 16 Palm Bay precincts.
There is a reason the charter question stood alone. Under section 5.043(a) of the Palm Bay City Charter, a candidate for Mayor or a council seat who receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary is declared elected, and no names for that seat appear on the general election ballot. That is what happened this year: in the August 18 primary, Kenny Johnson won Seat 4 with 53.87 percent of the vote and Mike Jaffe won Seat 5 with 58.66 percent, and the official primary results mark both as elected in the primary. Those were the only two council races on the primary ballot, so no council race reached November, and the charter question was the city’s only item for voters to decide on Tuesday.
Every figure in this report is unofficial. The county numbers come from the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections, and the statewide numbers come from the Florida Division of Elections’ Florida Election Watch. Brevard’s totals do not yet include provisional ballots or mail ballots that voters can still fix, and no result in this piece is final until the canvassing process finishes.
The charter question: approved, 64.69 percent
The question, Ordinance 2026-20, asked voters to amend section 3.062 of the Palm Bay City Charter. The ballot wording was:
“Shall section 3.062 of the Palm Bay City Charter be amended to provide that in the event of a vacancy on the City Council, if there are 12 months or less remaining in the unexpired term the vacancy may be filled by appointment by the remaining members of the City Council, and if there are more than 12 months remaining in the unexpired term the vacancy shall be filled by election?”
In plain terms: when a council seat opens with a year or less left in the term, the remaining council members may appoint a replacement. When more than a year remains, the seat goes to the voters in an election.
On the unofficial returns, 28,731 voters said Yes (64.69 percent) and 15,684 said No (35.31 percent), out of 44,415 votes cast on the question. The Yes side won every one of the 16 precincts that voted on it. The strongest Yes vote came in precinct 513, at 75.5 percent. The narrowest came in precinct 320, at 59.3 percent, and even there the Yes side won by a clear margin. There was no part of the city where this question was close.
House District 33: 274 votes, and not finished
The closest race on the Palm Bay ballot is the one for state representative in District 33, which covers most of the city. On the completed unofficial count, Daniel R. McDow has 36,394 votes (50.19 percent) and the incumbent, Monique Miller, has 36,120 votes (49.81 percent). The margin is 274 votes, or 0.38 percent.
That margin matters because of where it sits. Under section 102.141(7), Florida Statutes, a margin of one-half of one percent or less requires a machine recount, in which every ballot is run back through the tabulators. On this race’s 72,514 votes, one-half of one percent is about 363 votes, so the current margin falls inside the recount line.
No recount has been ordered, and the race is not final. Florida’s recount law does not run off the election night count. The trigger is the first set of unofficial returns, which the canvassing board must file by noon on Saturday, November 7. Ballots are still outstanding that will be counted before that filing: provisional ballots, and mail ballots with signature problems that voters can cure until 5:00 PM on Thursday, November 5. Those ballots can move a 274-vote margin in either direction, including above the recount threshold. If the first unofficial returns hold the margin at one-half of one percent or less, the Secretary of State orders the machine recount for this state race and the Brevard County Canvassing Board conducts it, unless Miller asks in writing that it not be held. A manual recount is a separate, later test that applies only if a machine recount narrows the margin to one-quarter of one percent or less.
One caution for readers who followed the race on election night: a widely shared count had Miller ahead by 91 votes at 9:40 PM. That was an interim snapshot. As the remaining votes were reported, the lead flipped, and the completed unofficial count above is the one that stands.
The rest of the Palm Bay ballot
United States Senator. This was a special election for an unexpired term, and Ashley Moody (REP) won it statewide on the unofficial returns. Brevard County ran stronger for her than the state did: 56.46 percent here, against 50.87 percent statewide.
Representative in Congress, District 8. Mike Haridopolos (REP) won the district on the unofficial returns, and Brevard County backed him more strongly than the district as a whole did: 56.33 percent here, against 53.17 percent district-wide.
Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The ticket of Byron Donalds and Bryan Avila (REP) won statewide with just over half the vote. Six other tickets each drew less than one percent, and Brevard backed the winners more strongly than the state did, 54.71 percent for Donalds on the county count.
Attorney General. James Uthmeier (REP) won statewide, and Brevard gave him a wider margin than the state did.
Chief Financial Officer. Blaise Ingoglia (REP) won statewide, in a race that finished with the same percentage split as the Attorney General’s race, and Brevard again ran wider for the winner.
Commissioner of Agriculture. Wilton Simpson (REP) won statewide. One oddity from the count: the qualified write-in candidate on this ballot drew no votes at all.
House District 34. The district takes in Palm Bay precincts 320 and 527, and it was not close: Robert Brackett (REP) won by nearly 30 points, and no recount question arises from it.
School Board, District 5. The nonpartisan District 5 race was the closest contest on the down-ballot, decided by 1,337 votes, with no recount threshold in play.
The amendments
A Florida constitutional amendment needs 60 percent Yes statewide to pass. This year the three amendments split.
Amendment 1, the Budget Stabilization Fund amendment, failed, and not narrowly: it drew about four votes in ten, in Brevard as in the state.
Amendment 2, the tangible personal property exemption on agricultural land, also failed. A majority of voters backed it in both counts, and it still fell short, because for an amendment a majority is not enough.
Amendment 3, the increased homestead exemption, passed. Brevard’s Yes vote, 61.00 percent, landed within a point of the statewide figure. Readers who followed The Palm Bayer’s Amendment 3 tracker will note the gap plainly: the tracker closed on a final forecast of 48.1 percent Yes and a modeled probability of passage of 0 percent. The actual Yes vote came in 13.89 points above the forecast, and the amendment passed.
The tax renewals
Save Our Indian River Lagoon. Brevard voters renewed the half-cent sales tax for the lagoon program for another 10 years, by better than three to one.
School millage. Voters renewed the school board’s one-mill property tax levy, which supports teacher pay among other purposes, for four more years.
School surtax. Voters also renewed the school board’s half-cent sales surtax, which pays for school facilities, security, and technology, for 10 years.
One contrast on this ballot is worth naming plainly. The same voters renewed all three local levies on the ballot: the Save Our Indian River Lagoon half-cent sales tax and the school half-cent sales surtax, one cent of sales tax combined, and the school board’s one-mill property tax levy, renewed in full for four more years. With the other hand, those same voters backed Amendment 3, the increased homestead exemption, a cut to the property tax paid on a home: 61.99 percent Yes statewide and 61.00 percent in Brevard. Read together, this ballot was not a vote against taxes or a vote for them; voters renewed the levies they can watch working close to home, a local property tax among them, and still took the state’s property tax cut when it was offered.
Councilman Mike Hammer, asked for his read on Amendment 3, answered with a target of his own:
“Look, people are tired of being nickeled & dimed everywhere they go, so I understand why voters jumped at the chance for tax relief. But property taxes actually buy you something, they pay for the police officers who protect your neighborhood and the roads you drive on every day. The real gouging happening in Florida right now is home insurance. That money isn’t building local infrastructure, it’s lining the pockets of insurance company CEOs. That’s the real crisis hitting our homeowners, and that’s where our focus needs to go.”
What happens next
Turnout in Brevard County was 60.79 percent: 271,885 ballots cast out of 447,257 registered voters, with all 166 precincts reporting. Statewide turnout was 60.82 percent.
The remaining steps run on the calendar in the District 33 section above: the cure deadline Thursday, the canvassing board’s review of provisional and mail ballots on Friday, November 6, the first unofficial returns at noon Saturday, November 7, and overseas ballots accepted through Friday, November 13. The Elections Canvassing Commission certifies the state races on Tuesday, November 17. Until then, every number in this report stays what it is labeled: unofficial.
