Collier County elections office dispels misinformation, works to ensure trust

Reporter: Rachel Cox-Rosen Writer: Jack Lowenstein
Published: Updated:
Trish Robertson, the public relations officer of Collier County Supervisor of Elections Office. Credit: WINK News.

An elections office in Southwest Florida is working to dispel lies when it comes to the 2020 presidential election. Even though it’s been close to a year, misinformation continues to spread in Southwest Florida.

Collier County Supervisor of Elections Office is hard at work to ensure public trust in elections. Supervisor Jennifer Edwards and her office are responding to every allegation head on.

The Collier County elections office knows some voters still believe there was cheating in the last election, so it’s seeking out those voters on social media.

Eight months after the fact, Joseph Barnes is still angry with the results of the presidential election.

“I don’t believe that it was fair,” Barnes said.

We asked Barnes how he feels about future elections.

“It’s going to be essentially just the way that the control of party in power has over the results and the narrative,” Barnes said.

Barnes is not alone in how he feels.

On social media, people still say votes were stolen and demand election audits, and claim voting machine companies rigged the outcome. We read posts with claims like these on the Collier County Supervisor of Elections Office Facebook page. On the office’s Facebook page, it has a post about dispelling election misinformation.

“So we’ve had a lot of questions about the integrity of the election,” said Trish Robertson, the public relations officer for Collier County Supervisor of Elections office.

Roberston told us that’s why the supervisor of elections office is sharing behind-the-scenes photos, offering “transparency tours” and answering people’s questions directly.

“Ultimately, a low voter confidence is going to turn into low voter turnout, and that’s definitely something we don’t wanna see here,” Robertson said.

Supervisor Edwards told us anyone who has a question should reach out. Her office wants people to get the information from the right place rather than turning to unreliable sources. She is optimistic going forward.

“I always have hope, and that’s why I like to be out in the community as much as possible,” Edwards said.

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