Hanlon bids farewell as elections chief

It seems fitting that John Hanlon’s last election as Gulf County’s supervisor of elections would be a big one, a presidential contest, marked by a nearly 78 percent turnout.

But that doesn’t make it any easier.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” said Hanlon, 55, who decided not to see a fourth term in office due to health concerns.

“I love doing it, I love my voters,” he said. “But when they said you can’t do it anymore, the decision was kind of made for me. I feel great, but medically, they said I can’t do it any more. It would be a risk.”

Hanlon will be succeeded in the job, which pays $123,976 annually, by Rhonda Pierce, also a Republican, who was elected to the post without opposition.

Hanlon’s last election saw the biggest chunk of voters, 5,211, cast ballots at the supervisor of elections sites in Port St. Joe and Wewahitchka before Election Day even dawned. Another 1,495 voted by mail, with just 2,025 casting their ballots on Nov. 5.

“Everything went smoothly,” Hanlon said. The office had about 43 workers manning 10 polling locations to accommodate the county’s 11,316 registered voters.

In looking back, Hanlon recalled his biggest challenge was in 2018, when just weeks after Hurricane Michael struck, he had to accommodate a statewide election at two “supercenters” since several of the precinct locations were damaged.

“And then we turned right around and had a statewide recount, for the governor, senator and commissioner of agriculture races,” he said.

Hanlon began his career in the elections office in 2008 where he served as assistant supervisor of elections under then-supervisor Linda Griffin. He was elected as supervisor of elections in November 2012, defeating Republican opponent Brittany Beauchamp in the primary and then Democrat Wyvonne Pickett in the general. He was returned to office without opposition in 2016 and 2020.

A graduate of Panama City’s Mosley High School, he attended Harding University. He is the son of John and Sue Hanlon, and has one daughter, Bethany, 11. A member of Long Avenue Baptist Church, he serves as vice-president of the Gulf County Kiwanis Club.

Hanlon said one of the funniest stories he had while working at the elections office, which once was the location of the health department, was when he was there by himself, early in his career there.

“A man came in and threw his hand up on the counter and he had a gash and he said ‘I think I need some stitches,’” Hanlon recalled. “I said ‘I think you need to go to the health department. I can’t help you with that buddy.”

He said he’s going to miss “the family feel” of working in a small county. 

“One voter, every election day, cooks up a big bowl of spaghetti for us and brings it to us. It’s probably there right now,” Hanlon said. “You don’t have that in large counties.

“I have great voters, man, always have had,” he said. “That’s honestly what I am going to miss the most, that’s my voters.”