1/3rd of Sarasota County has already voted
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Originally Posted by Todd Ruger & Doug Sword, Herald-Tribune
SARASOTA COUNTY - Even before Election Day arrives, almost half of registered voters are likely to have already cast ballots in Sarasota County.
The county's early voting sites are among the busiest in the state, with more voters casting ballots here than in much more populous counties, including Pinellas, Lee and Volusia. That is on top of a record number of absentee ballot requests.
One-third of the county's 260,618 registered voters -- 87,630 -- cast a ballot by late afternoon Wednesday, with four days of early voting to go and nearly 20,000 absentee ballots outstanding.
Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent is predicting pre-election turnout will be around 45 percent.
Early voting is usually dominated by Democrats in most Florida counties, while absentee voting is more the province of Republicans. But after a slow start Oct. 20-21, Republicans have been casting more early ballots over the last week and have almost caught up. Democrats have cast 41 percent of early voting ballots through Tuesday, while Republicans account for 40 percent.
Despite the Democrats' excitement, Sarasota County Republican chairman Eric Robinson is happy with his party's performance.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, 39,161 registered Republicans had cast absentee or early ballots, nearly 6,000 more than the Democrat's number.
"At the end of the night, it's how many votes you have," Robinson said. Democrats are turning out to vote, but with a 30,000 edge in registered voters, there is no way the other party can cast more ballots than registered Republicans, Robinson said.
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County seeks removal of political signs from public property
Follow-up story:
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Originally Posted by scgov.net
With early voting underway, many voters have noticed an increased number of political signs being placed upon public property. While election statutes do allow for solicitation of voters within a certain distance of polling places, the placement of signs on public property is not permitted under the county’s zoning code.
Oct. 24, County Administrator Jim Ley contacted the chairpersons of the local political parties and requested that the candidates respect state law and county ordinances and remove the offending signs by noon Saturday, Oct. 25. Signs remaining on public property after the noon deadline will be removed by county staff, Ley told the party leaders.
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