Sarasota County voters will continue to elect commissioners in single-member districts.
In Tuesday's special election, residents voted down a referendum to move to a system that would have allowed voters throughout the county to elect all five commissioners.
Voters approved switching to the single member district method in 2018, which means that commissioners are elected solely by citizens within their districts.
An expensive campaign by a Tallahassee-based political committee promoted the initiative.
The tabulations from the Sarasota County Supervisor of elections showed that 57.2% of voters opposed amendment, while 42.8% voted for it.
Voters on Tuesday also agreed to continue paying a small tax to support the county's public schools.
With the approval of a 1 mill property tax referendum, the Sarasota County school district is projected to collect over $71 million dollars for local schools.
Eighty-five percent of voters supported the referendum and 14.5% opposed it.
