'Awake Again' Protester: Jack Cole

About 25 protesters assembled Tuesday outside the offices of State. Sen. Mike Bennett along Cortez Road as part of the "Awake Again" rallies held around the state. Bradenton Patch talked with some of the protesters to get their views on Gov. Rick Scott,  the recently wrapped session of the Florida Legislature and last week about voting in Florida.

Name: Jack Cole

Age: 27

Profession: Organizer for Awake the State.

How long have you lived in Bradenton?: 27 years

Why did you come out?: This is celebrating the end of the (legislative) session Tallahassee and all the archaic bills that have passed. It is so lopsided in the Florida House that the Democrats don't even have a one-third majority to speed bump legislation. At all. Anything the Republican party puts out goes right through. And I think we're out here trying to win this message; we're trying to show that Democrats in this part of Florida do exist. We do have a message. We do have a central location. And we can organize.

What should Gov. Rick Scott do differently?: He should listen to Floridians. He should put his ear to the ground. There is a huge disconnect between Tallahassee and the average Floridian. I have a list of grievances a mile long. It just doesn't make sense.

What do you think about Sen. Mike Bennett?: This 'People in Africa walk 700 miles to vote.' These are archaic. And I do feel Mike Bennett did this to Manatee County because of our recent efforts to have voter registration drives. As soon as the numbers started to close and systems were implemented to keep it going, all of a sudden this bill was introduced to change everything. And it affected me because my voter registration says one thing, my driver's license says one thing, and I live on Anna Maria Island. Now with this new law, I couldn't vote. If I showed up on election day I could not vote.