Monday, September 6, 2021

Question 36: Manipulation in Sarasota County survey

In 2018, Sarasota County citizens approved Single Member District Voting by a substantial margin. (Background here.)

Commissioner Alan Maio  
Now, elected officials are attempting to question that vote, ordering a telephone opinion survey to include a specific question about it.

In that survey now underway, a "policy question" is asked of voters. Here it is:




36. Sarasota County now operates with single-member districts. This means that the county is divided into separate geographic areas, creating districts, and each district is represented by only one commissioner. In the next election, Sarasota County residents will now only be able to vote for the one county commissioner that will represent the district they live in. Please tell me how much you approve or disapprove of your ability to vote for one county commissioner for your district.

⎯ Strongly disapprove
⎯ Disapprove
⎯ Approve
⎯ Strongly approve
⎯ Unsure/DK/NA/Refused

Our five County Commissioners specifically directed that citizens be asked this question (last year's survey resulted in 1,250 responses):



A citizens advocacy group for Single Member Districts has found misrepresentations of fact in the framing of Question 36.

Citizens for District Power offers another way to ask it:

36. Sarasota County has always recognized five districts, but only recently did the people vote to give each district specific voting power. In the 2018 election, 60% of Sarasota voters across all five districts voted to structure Board of County Commission elections by district. That is, instead of having five Commissioners elected by no particular district (and therefore accountable to no voting constituency), each district elects one Commissioner to represent its unique issues and needs. All five commissioners still vote on all issues that come before the Board.

Do you approve or disapprove giving each district the power to hold its representative accountable?

- I approve
- I disapprove 

Sixty percent of Sarasota's voters in 2018 voted to approve Single Member Districts. Surveying voters on SMDs before 40% of our residents have had the opportunity to vote even once in the SMD format is a derelict preemption of voters' experience and a calculated attempt to distort public exposure of this issue.

Citizens for District Power puts it this way:

The County has not provided an open public forum in which all points of view have equal time to present and to be openly discussed. 

At a recent meeting of the Charter Review Board, 38 citizens spoke in favor of Single Member Districts.  

Sarasota County's 2021 survey should not be cited as evidence of anything other than the county's own effort to bias and preemptively reverse a legitimate election decision by Sarasota voters.

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