State Sen. Joe Gruters and Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler were recently named chairman and vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
'Today is a new day,' says Demetrius Jifunza, the founder of the Sarasota chapter of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, the group that led the effort to pass Amendment 4.
Amendment 4, which goes into effect Tuesday, restores voting rights for most individuals with prior felony convictions who have completed their sentences.
In November's general election, 13,019 voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot in Sarasota County. That was a more than 200 percent increase from the fewer than 6,000 voters under 30 in the 2014 midterms.
The proposal would allow voters to only vote in the County Commission election in their district, rather than having county commissioners elected in a county-wide vote.
