Sarasota early voting outpacing March election numbers

As the first day of early voting came to a close in the Sarasota City Commission runoff election, voters had cast 1,300 more ballots than when the period kicked off in the March election.

So far, 3,517 residents voted by mail or through early voting in the race between candidates Jen Ahearn-Koch, Hagen Brody and Martin Hyde as of Tuesday Morning. That’s more than 9% of registered voters.

“It was a strong first day for municipal elections,” said Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner.

When the first day early voting ended for the initial City Commission contest, roughly 6% of voters had cast ballots. At the end of the entire early voting timeline, 10% of registered voters had returned vote-by-mail ballots or cast ballots in person.

Voter turnout for that election was 19.4%.

“We did see that in 2013 where the runoff election in the city of Sarasota had a higher turnout than the first election,” Turner said.

Roughly 267 voters cast ballots in person yesterday, compared with the 96 in the first election. The Supervisor of Elections office has received 3,250 vote-by-mail ballots, which is a 54% increase over the same period in March.

Early voting runs through Saturday, May 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m at 101 S. Washington Blvd.