City Elections — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay's only municipal item on the November 3, 2026 ballot is Ordinance 2026-20, a charter amendment on filling City Council vacancies, because both council seats up this year were decided in the August 18 primary.

Seats 4 and 5 on the Palm Bay City Council were scheduled for the 2026 regular municipal election, each for a term running to November 2030 (Palm Bay City Clerk elections page). Each seat had three candidates on the August 18, 2026 primary ballot. There the two incumbents cleared fifty percent: Kenny Johnson won Seat 4 with 10,064 votes, or 53.87%, and Mike Jaffe won Seat 5 with 11,125 votes, or 58.66%, with all 16 participating precincts reporting (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections primary results). Under the Palm Bay charter, a candidate who receives more than fifty percent in a primary is declared elected and no names for that seat appear on the general election ballot (Palm Bay City Charter, page 25).

The Palm Bay question on the general election ballot asks whether section 3.062 of the Palm Bay City Charter should be amended so that a vacancy with 12 months or less left in the term may be filled by appointment by the remaining members, and a vacancy with more than 12 months left shall be filled by election (Supervisor of Elections 2026 Amendments and Referenda). Palm Bay voters also see the statewide amendments and the countywide lagoon tax and school referendums listed on the same Supervisor of Elections page.

Today the Palm Bay City Council fills any vacancy by appointment within sixty days, and the amendment would instead require an election whenever more than 12 months remain in the term.

The current text of section 3.062 says a vacancy is filled by appointment of the majority of the remaining members within sixty days (Palm Bay City Charter, Section 3.062). If the remaining Palm Bay councilmembers fail to agree within that window, a special election is called, coordinated by the City Clerk with the Supervisor of Elections. Vacancy elections run concurrent with the regularly scheduled city elections, and appointees serve until the next general election cycle.

The ballot summary is the only official text of the Palm Bay amendment fetched for this page; the ordinance itself is not quoted here. For charter amendments proposed by citizen petition, section 3.096 of the charter provides that an amendment approved by a majority of voters takes effect upon certification by the State of Florida, with the City Clerk sending the results to the state within five days after the council certifies them (Palm Bay City Charter, page 19).

Palm Bay elects its mayor and four councilmembers at large to numbered seats in nonpartisan races, for four-year terms capped at three consecutive terms.

The Palm Bay charter says all council elections are nonpartisan, with no party designation for any candidate, and each member is elected to a specific seat (Palm Bay City Charter, page 24). Every voter in the city votes on every seat. The general election falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, and no member may appear on the ballot if the current term would complete twelve consecutive years (Palm Bay City Charter, page 25).

Palm Bay staggers its seats across the two even-year cycles. The mayor and Seats 2 and 3 are elected in presidential election years, and Seats 4 and 5 in the following even year. A primary is held on the Tuesday nine weeks before the general election when more than two candidates qualify for a seat; the top two move on, unless one tops fifty percent and is declared elected outright. With fewer than three qualifying candidates, their names skip the primary and go straight to the November ballot.

Results become official through the Supervisor of Elections. The Palm Bay charter then requires a regular or special council meeting within three working days of the City Clerk receiving the official results, where the results are announced and the newly elected officials take the oath of office (Palm Bay City Charter, Section 5.044). The City Clerk coordinates regular and special municipal elections with the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections and qualifies candidates (Palm Bay City Clerk page).

A Palm Bay council candidate must have lived in the city for the two years before the election, be a registered voter at a city address and file with the City Clerk during a set noon-to-noon qualifying week.

For 2026 the qualifying period ran from noon on June 8 to noon on June 12, 2026 (Palm Bay 2026 Candidate Qualifying Packet, page 3). The fee is $50.00 plus a state assessment of one percent of the annual salary for the seat. The packet lists a proposed councilmember salary of $13,230.67 as of October 1, 2025, a $132.31 assessment and a total of $182.31, paid from the campaign account.

Forms can reach the Office of the City Clerk in person, by mail or by email, but every signature must be original (Palm Bay 2026 Candidate Qualifying Packet, page 1). Section 99.061(8) of the Florida Statutes let 2026 candidates submit papers from May 26, 2026, fourteen days before qualifying opened, for the clerk to hold until the period began.

Campaign signs in Palm Bay follow city rules. Candidates and political committees must register signs with the City Clerk, and signs are allowed on city property only during early voting at Tony Rosa Community Center and Fred Poppe Regional Park and on election day, to be removed within 24 hours (Palm Bay City Clerk elections page).

Voter registration, mail ballots, early voting and results for Palm Bay elections come from the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections, which keeps an office at 450 Cogan Drive SE in Palm Bay.

For the November 3, 2026 general election, registration books closed on October 5, mail ballot requests are due by 5:00 p.m. on October 22, and polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Election Day at each voter's own precinct (Supervisor of Elections Current Elections page). Early voting runs October 19 through October 31, 2026, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekends, and Palm Bay voters may use any Brevard early voting site (Supervisor of Elections Early Voting page). The Supervisor's main line is 321-290-VOTE (8683).

The Palm Bay charter ties city precinct lines to the county's: section 5.061 divides the city into voting precincts whose boundaries match the county voting precincts (Palm Bay City Charter, page 26). Countywide registration and polling place rules are covered on the Brevard County layer of this site. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay City Clerk and Brevard County Supervisor of Elections websites.