805 Key residents have cast early, absentee ballots

Longboat Key voters aren’t waiting for the March 25 general municipal election to cast their ballots.
As of March 12, the town clerk’s office reported that 372 residents voted during the first three days of early voting, and 418 voters returned absentee ballots.

Early voting opened March 10 and continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through March 22, at Longboat Key Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road. Bring a form of picture/signature identification.

The town clerk is sweetening early voting with daily refreshments. Thursday’s specials are a chocolate fountain with strawberries, rice krispie bars, granola bars and marshmallows for dipping, and root beer floats in the afternoon.

In this year’s election, Terry Gans and Ray Rajewski are running for the District 3 seat, and Armando Linde and Irwin Pastor are running for one of two at-large seats on the Longboat Key Town Commission. All voters are eligible to vote in both races.

On Election Day, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Manatee County residents will vote at Longboat Island Chapel, 6200 Gulf of Mexico Drive, while Sarasota County residents will cast their ballots at Town Hall.

The last day to request an absentee ballot is March 19. For an absentee ballot request form, Sarasota County residents can visit sarasotavotes.com, and Manatee County residents can go to votemanatee.com.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].