A far-left Sarasota County nonprofit in Florida sent out a mailer targeting Republican voters in an attempt to sway an upcoming county commission election, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Breitbart News obtained a copy of the mailer sent by the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, and found the self-proclaimed “non-partisan” group used a photograph of former President Donald Trump and the slogan “Stop the Steal” — a phrase in reference to the 2020 U.S. presidential election — to persuade Republican residents to vote “no” on a charter amendment which would reinstate county-wide voting in Sarasota County.
The front of the mailer reads “REPUBLICAN VOTER ALERT” and has a photo of Trump next to the “Stop the Steal” slogan. The use of the slogan is extremely notable, given that Democrats as a whole have shunned any possibility of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and have called anyone who questioned the outcome of the election a “threat to democracy.” The bottom of the mailer reads, “On March 8, vote no on county-wide voting.”
On the back of the mailer is a photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Joe Biden, followed by the message, “Don’t let them steal our votes again. Vote no.” The back also has a bulleted list which claims that returning to full-county voting would “steal our votes right here in Sarasota County.”
The mailer also claims that returning to full-county voting “would allow establishment politicians to rig the system like they did in 2020” and “make it easier for them to cheat and steal more races.”
In tiny print at the bottom of the mailer is a statement that says, “Pd. Pol. Adv. paid for by the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections,” followed by a P.O. box address out of Florida. It should be noted that members of the “non-partisan” group’s board have donated to Democrat Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, former governor and party-flipper Charlie Crist, and disgraced former governor candidate Andrew Gillum, among other Democrats. The group often works with local liberals to target Republicans on local issues.
Why the Mailer Matters
In 2018, Sarasota Democrats successfully pushed an effort to move Sarasota County from county-wide voting for all five commissioner seats to single-member districts, meaning voters can only vote for the commissioner representing their district instead of all five. Sarasota Republicans argue the measure passed because voters were confused, while Democrats tout a nearly 60 percent approval of the referendum.
Sarasota County is dominated by Republicans, 151,123 versus 103,966 Democrats, and not a single Democrat has been elected to county commission in more than 50 years. Thus, the goal of single member district voting was to break the county up into pieces, which gives some advantage to Democrat and moderate-leaning areas in the north part of the county.
Reinstating county-wide voting would make a Democrat county commission victory much more difficult, and a “yes” vote has been heartily endorsed by the Republican Party of Sarasota County, almost all prominent Republican elected officials in town, and others.
According to a report from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, county commissioners have “long opposed single-member districts.”
The report reads:
Last April, board Chairman Alan Maio sent a letter to chair of the Sarasota County Charter Review Board, asking the panel to “review the impacts” of single-member districts, which had been place for over two years. But the Charter Review Board decided in an October meeting not to challenge the system.
The next month, the County Commission selected a map for their revised district boundary lines. The commissioners did not choose a controversial map that would have made it easier for Commissioner Christian Ziegler to be re-elected – they selected another map instead.
But earlier that day, the commissioners indicated that they wanted to hold another referendum on single-member districts. If the referendum is successful – and the single-member district system repealed – Ziegler, a Republican, would have a greater chance of being re-elected. The county as a whole has a higher percentage of Republicans than his district.
The Republican Party of Sarasota County has reportedly been encouraging residents to vote “yes” on the referendum, sent voter guides via text messages, and has posted signs along county roads.
Acting chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota County told the publication earlier this month the party wants to “get rid of the voter suppression that we’ve had” within the last few years.
“We feel very, very strongly that all voters should have the right to vote for all county commissioners,” he said.
As to the fallout from Sarasota Alliance’s mailer, a Sarasota County resident exclusively told Breitbart News he was deceived by the appearance of the card and ending up voting “no” on the measure, even though he supports county-wide voting.
“His [Trump’s] photograph was on it. There was no reason to suspicious,” William McWade, 70, said over email.
McWade said he realized a few days later that he had been bamboozled. He said he tried calling officials and asking for his vote to be eliminated, but to no avail.
“[I] believe that this community, which is populated with many [sic] senior citizen[s], was chosen by the Demo-Flops, to perpetrate fraud,” McWade speculated. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 37 percent of Sarasota’s County’s population is over 65.
Early voting for the March 8 referendums runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day from Saturday, February 26 to Sunday, March 6, according to the Herald-Tribune.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter.