Longboat voters side with county on approving school tax, rejecting at-large voting

Longboat Key voters were in agreement Tuesday with countywide elections results on two referendums.

Town residents rejected a proposal to return to at-large voting for Sarasota County Commission seats by a nearly two to one margin and more broadly supported continuing a 1-mill additional property tax for Sarasota County Schools.

With all precincts reporting countywide, the school millage rate held a 84.19% to 15.81% advantage in unofficial results reported by the Supervisor of Elections office on Tuesday night. On Longboat Key, the millage rate was supported 89% (1,643 votes) to 11% (203 votes).

The voting on a county charter amendment to end single-member district voting and return to a system in which all voters in the county cast ballots for all county commissioners was closer.

In countywide results, 57.24% of voters rejected the amendment.

Longboat voters rejected the proposal by a margin of 61.76% (1,129 votes) to  38.24% (699).

Vote by mail balloting was the big difference among Longboat voters on that issue.

In in-person voting on election day and in a week of early balloting, those supporting single-member districts cast nine more ballots than those who voted to reject, 319-310. But in mail-in voting, 819 cast ballots against the measure and 380 voted in favor.