Vero Beach City Council Elections — Vero Beach, Florida

Vero Beach voters elect all five City Council members in citywide, nonpartisan races held in November, and the winners then choose a mayor from among themselves. The city's election information page lists a candidates oath for nonpartisan office among the official filing documents, so no party label appears beside council names on the ballot. Seats are not tied to districts: in each cycle the candidates with the most votes citywide fill the open seats.

Recent cycles show how the seats rotate. According to Vero Beach 32963, three council seats were on the ballot in November 2024, and the top three finishers took them. In 2025 two seats were up, those of Mayor John Cotugno and Councilman Taylor Dingle, and the same newspaper reported that the top two vote-getters would win. Dingle, first elected in 2023, was described in August 2025 as a first-term councilman seeking re-election, consistent with two-year terms and an election in Vero Beach every year.

The mayor is not on the ballot as mayor. Vero Beach 32963 reported in August 2025 that Cotugno had been chosen by council members to serve as mayor in 2022, 2024 and 2025, so the title follows a council vote after each election rather than a separate citywide race.

Two offices share the work. The City of Vero Beach City Clerk page states that the City Clerk is the Supervisor of Elections for all city referenda and elections; the clerk is Sherri Philo, MMC, at Vero Beach City Hall, 1053 20th Place. Candidates deal with that office directly: the Indian River County Supervisor of Elections notes that candidates for city council and town offices file their filing and qualifying documents, and their campaign reports, with their respective clerk.

The paperwork posted by the Vero Beach clerk outlines what a council campaign involves. The election page lists the appointment of a campaign treasurer and designation of a campaign depository, the candidate and campaign treasurer handbook, treasurer report forms for itemized contributions and expenditures, a filing fee notice of candidacy and affidavit, a statement of candidate, an election signs document and two city ordinances, No. 2019-04 and No. 2021-21, along with 2026 treasury report due dates.

Ballots, polling places and counting are handled countywide. The Indian River County Supervisor of Elections, Leslie Rossway Swan, runs voter registration, early voting, mail ballots and Election Day polling for Indian River County voters, including those in the City of Vero Beach, from an office at 4375 43rd Avenue in Vero Beach.

As of October 8, 2026, the City of Vero Beach City Council page lists five members: John E. Cotugno, Mayor; Taylor Dingle, Vice Mayor; and Councilmembers Linda Moore, John Carroll and Aaron Vos. Last verified: October 8, 2026, on the City of Vero Beach website, using its City Council and Candidates For City Council 2026 pages.

The city's Candidates For City Council 2026 page lists eight candidates. Two of them are sitting council members, Linda Moore and Aaron Vos, both of whom won seats in the November 2024 Vero Beach election. The third member elected that year, John Carroll, does not appear on the 2026 list. The other six names on the list are not incumbents, and this page does not profile them; the city's candidate page and the county Supervisor of Elections are the official sources for the full field and for results once ballots are counted.

Cotugno and Dingle, whose seats were decided in the November 2025 election, both remain on the Vero Beach council list as of October 2026, Cotugno as mayor and Dingle as vice mayor. Moore and Carroll were each re-elected to a second term in November 2024, the same election that brought Vos to the council for the first time.

The 2024 race filled three seats. Vero Beach 32963 reported that Vice Mayor Linda Moore led with 4,008 votes, 27 percent, followed by Aaron Vos with 3,390 votes and John Carroll with 3,288 votes, 22 percent. Moore and Carroll won second terms, and Vos, a resident of the barrier island who had never held public office, joined the council. The paper also reported precinct detail: Vos carried Precinct 33 on the island with 26 percent, finished second in mainland Precinct 22 east of the railroad tracks and third in Precinct 20 west of the tracks.

The 2025 race nearly did not happen. Less than a day before the August 2025 noon filing deadline, Cotugno and Dingle appeared to be unopposed, which according to Vero Beach 32963 would have produced the first uncontested City Council election in 30 years. A former council member then filed, forcing a November 4, 2025 election that the paper said would cost city taxpayers about $32,000. Cotugno was seeking a third term and Dingle a second. For scale, the paper put the total number of votes cast in the 2021 Vero Beach council race at 5,246.

Dingle's path illustrates how open the citywide format is. Vero Beach 32963 reported that he finished fifth in a seven-candidate field in 2021 with 9 percent of the vote and sixth of eight in 2022 with 11 percent, before winning in 2023 by finishing second to Cotugno in a three-candidate race.

The Indian River County Supervisor of Elections lists the 2026 General Election for November 3, 2026, with polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and voters required to use their assigned polling location on Election Day. The registration deadline was October 5, 2026. Requests for a mail ballot must reach the elections office by October 22 at 5:00 p.m., and the City of Vero Beach election page reminds residents to renew mail ballot requests through voteindianriver.gov or by phone.

Early voting runs from October 19 to October 31, 2026, at four sites, three of them in Vero Beach: the Supervisor of Elections office at 4375 43rd Avenue, the Indian River County Main Library at 1600 21st Street and the Intergenerational Recreation Center at 1590 9th Street SW. The fourth is Sebastian City Hall. According to the county's early voting page, hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily, extended to 6:00 p.m. on Thursdays.

Mail ballots must be received by the Supervisor of Elections by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted. They can be dropped at a secure ballot intake station at any Indian River County early voting site during early voting hours or delivered in person to the elections office on 43rd Avenue. Voters are asked to show photo and signature identification at the polls.