BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic is asking Brevard County Commissioners to restore more than $300,000 to his 2023-2034 budget request.
Without those funds, Bobanic said voters may have to get their next sample ballot by email, online, or in the newspaper. He’s concerned many registered voters will never see a sample ballot. Bobanic said that money would also be used for return postage on vote-by-mail ballots.
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“It’s my opinion and my predecessors, you shouldn’t have to pay to vote,” Bobanic said. “We have a lot of elderly and senior citizen voters in this county who can’t get to a polling place, which is why they requested mail ballot.”
But, there’s no statutory requirement to provide postage. This year in preparation for a busy election cycle, the Supervisor of Elections office requested just over a 19% increase over last year’s budget. Instead, county commissioners approved a 14.5% increase, which amounts to an additional $952,000.
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Brevard County Commissioner Jason Steele said there’s a big misconception right now on the sample ballots.
“Most people are saying that we’re doing away with sample ballots, that is not correct at all. What we’re doing is the Supervisor of Elections is going to have to do a different delivery system,” he said.
Steele also said in his opinion, there was a need for some fiscal responsibility.
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Commissioner John Tobia, who will be running against Bobanic for Brevard County Supervisor of Elections, said Bobanic has the discretion to use money from the funding already approved to mail sample ballots and provide postage for vote-by-mail postage.
Bobanic said there’s not an extra $300,000 just lying around in his current budget. County Commissioners will have their final budget hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 19, at 5:30 p.m.
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