Change the Date Sarasota is an incredible gathering of residents, businesses, organizations and thought leaders across the political spectrum. It is an effort to increase voter participation in city commission elections and to save taxpayer money by changing the date of city elections to the fall.

It is not just overall voter participation that will double or triple, African American voter composition more than doubles, Hispanic voter composition almost triples, and voter composition of those under 29 years old almost triples in fall elections as well.

If that weren’t enough to change the date of city elections to fall of even-numbered years (to coincide with federal, state and county elections), it will also save the city about $100,000 per election cycle. Remember, the city commission just voted to raise taxes; imagine what the city could do with six figures of money every other year.