Goal is to encourage more voter participation in 2026 elections
One out of three voters cast ballots in the past two Sarasota County primary elections, the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County pointed out this week in a news release. “As a result, only a third of the population decided our community’s future,” the nonprofit organization noted.
“Going into the 2026 midterm election cycle, the League of Women Voters of Sarasota County (LWVSRQ) wants to buck that trend,” it says in the release.
To pull that off, the release continues, the organization needed a fresh perspective. Therefore, it partnered with the Ringling College of Art + Design’s INDEX (Industry Experience) Center, “a unique program that embeds talented students into real-world design roles to aid local businesses and community initiatives,” the release explains.
“We wanted to understand voter reluctance among the most hard-to-reach groups: young adults, young families and NPA (No Party Affiliation) voters,” said Rhonda Peters, co-president of the LWVSRQ, in the release. “We tasked the Ringling students with researching those barriers and building a social media campaign to smash through them,” she added.
Breakthrough insights — roadblocks, not apathy
“The Ringling team didn’t guess what voters wanted,” the release notes. Instead, the team members conducted research.
“They discovered that voter disengagement wasn’t driven by apathy, but by three critical roadblocks that kept voters from the polls,” as follows:
- “Bureaucracy — General confusion surrounding registration, changing deadlines, voter identification and complex ballot layouts.
- “Barriers — Systemic hurdles, including confusion surrounding eligibility” because of the fact that Florida is a closed-primary state. The National Council of State Legislatures explains that in Florida, “In a primary election a qualified elector is entitled to vote the official primary election ballot of the political party designated in the elector’s registration, and no other. It is unlawful for any elector to vote in a primary for any candidate running for nomination from a party other than that in which such elector is registered,” in accord with Florida Statute 101.021.
- “Personal Impact — A disconnect in understanding how mid-term and primary races impact daily life; from rent to roads to their children’s education.”
Then the release points out, “Armed with these insights, the League developed accessible, nonpartisan voter education resources.” Its members next “engineered a multi-channel communications strategy designed to neutralize misinformation and aggressively drive turnout. All resources and communication tools are available to the community at no cost.”
Voter resources: fact versus fiction
“The League’s portfolio of free, nonpartisan voter services is available on its website www.lwvsrq.org, the release notes. They include the following, it says:
- VOTE411.org — “A digital one-stop shop launching July 10, where voters can register, find their polling places and learn about the candidates on their ballots in the candidates’ own words.”
- Candidate forums — These provide voters “with direct, unscripted access to candidates as they respond to questions focused on community issues. Forums are recorded and available for on-demand viewing at voters’ convenience.”
- Speakers Bureau — “Objective public seminars on civics, election law and ballot amendments help demystify the voting process.”
- Voting is personal: #BE Counted — “By stripping away polarizing political jargon, the campaign materials focus on local and personal impact, unified by a call to action. #BECounted.
“Our visuals will feel like a ‘dispatch from a friend,’ utilizing high-impact graphics to ensure the League’s message is human-centric and genuinely scroll-stopping,” explained Grace McCarthy, a Business of Art and Design student on the Ringling INDEX team, in the release.
“The personal touch continues with posts from Sarasota community leaders,” including Evelyn Almodovar, executive director of UnidosNow; Nate Jacobs, founder and artistic director of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe; and former elected officials Jon Thaxton and Mike Bennett, among others, the release adds.
A community toolkit and member mobilization
To reinforce the message that voting is personal and to expand its reach, the release says, the League is “sharing its resources and graphics, which consist of bilingual, ready-to-use flyers, social media tiles, and email templates with local nonpartisan organizations and community groups.
“The strategy of relying on ‘trusted messengers’ continues as LWVSRQ activates its core base of 350 members and 1,200 local supporters to distribute toolkits and educational guides across their personal networks of friends, family, and neighbors.”
The release further points out, “The League of Women Voters of Sarasota County believes that democracy works best when every citizen is civically engaged. By pairing reliable resources and data-driven designs with grassroots power, the League hopes to create an ‘irresistible force’ that empowers today’s voters and engages tomorrow’s.”
A person may find more information and assistance at lwvsrq.org/gotvtoolkit.