'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.
The next Sarasota Tiger Bay Club luncheon will feature a discussion of the proposal to create "single member districts" for the Sarasota County Commission.
City of Sarasota voters will choose this November whether to move City Commission elections to coincide with federal, state, county and district elections.
Early in-person voting in the state House special election involving Democrat Margaret Good, Republican James Buchanan and Libertarian Alison Foxall begins Saturday, Feb. 3.
