Kathy Dent
Supervisor of Elections
Sarasota County, Florida
Kathy Dent was elected Supervisor of Elections of Sarasota County, Florida, on November 7, 2000, and reelected unopposed on November 2, 2004.
In 2001 and 2002 she served on the Legislative Committee of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections and co-chaired the Education and Training Committee in 2002-2004. She served as Treasurer of the FSASE Executive Committee in 2004-05, as Secretary in 2005-06 and Vice-President 2006-07. In May of 2007 she will be sworn in as President of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
Ms. Dent was co-chair of the Election Redesign Committee of The Election Center's National Task Force on Election Reform. She is a certified election administrator in the State of Florida, and in 2005 was one of only 320 individuals in the country to hold national designation as a Certified Elections/Registration Administrator (CERA) by the Election Center. She is a member of IACREOT (International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Elections Officials and Treasurers), The Election Center, and NACRC (National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks). She was also a participant in the National Institute of Science and Technology's (NIST's) workshop on "Developing an Analysis of Threats to Voting Systems" in October 2005 and in the Center for American Politics and Citizens workshop on the "Usability and Security of Electronic Voting Systems" in June 2006.
A strong advocate of the special needs community, Ms. Dent has received awards from the National Association of Counties, the National Organization on Disabilities, and the Suncoast Center for Independent Living for her work on behalf of people with disabilities with respect to voting. She received the Florida Council of the Blind 2005 Legislative Award in recognition of her success in making voting accessible to people with visual handicaps.
Ms. Dent has also been extremely active in empowering and engaging students in the electoral process. She began a student poll worker program in 2002, introduced First Vote in all public high schools in the county, and created a student advisory board, which helps the supervisor's office to implement various student voter education initiatives, including the conduct of school elections on the touch-screen voting machines. Ms Dent also addresses middle and primary students about elections and the electoral process.
Ms. Dent is a member and Secretary of the Board of Directors of Senior Friendship Centers, Inc., the League of Women Voters, the Downtown Sarasota Partnership, Tiger Bay, SPARCC (Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center), and the Golden Gate Point Association, and is a mentor in the Take Stock in Children program. She is a member of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Sarasota.
She has a B.S. degree in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and had had extensive experience as an educator and a legal administrator, prior to becoming supervisor of elections.
She is married to attorney, John Dent, and together they have raised five children and have seven grandchildren.
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