Supervisor of elections welcomes Sarasota's youngest voters

Supervisor of Elections Welcomes
Sarasota’s Youngest Voters

(SARASOTA, FL, November 1, 2002) – Kathy Dent, Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections, will welcome Sarasota County’s youngest voters on November 5, 2002. Audrey Shabty and Daniel Fletcher will cast their ballots for the first time at the supervisor of elections office at 101 South Washington Boulevard in Sarasota. Dent will personally welcome Shabty and Fletcher when they arrive to vote at 11:30 a.m. using the county’s touch-screen voting machines. Shabty and Fletcher turn 18 on Election Day. Both voters will be voting in-office absentee ballots. Shabty is a senior at Sarasota High School and Fletcher is a senior at Riverview High School.

Supervisor of Elections, Kathy Dent, has taken a keen interest in engaging Sarasota’s young citizens in the voting process and increasing their awareness of the important issues decided by ballot in the United States. She is working closely with the Sarasota County School Board to introduce the “First Vote” program, a nonpartisan voter registration and education program for high school students. Dent has also implemented a student poll worker program. Earlier this year, the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office began recruiting and training high school students to work at the polls during elections. Since the September 10 primary, approximately 150 high school seniors have participated in the poll worker training program.	Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent poses with Sarasota County's youngest voters Daniel Fletcher and Audrey Shabty during the kickoff of the First Vote program.
“I plan to continue to expand the “First Vote” program. It is very exciting and gratifying to see young people get involved in our elections. They learn about our form of government, its history, what it takes to organize large public events, their responsibilities as citizens and, most important, that they can make a difference in our country,” Dent said.