Secretary Benson discusses countering misinformation, voting absentee with Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck

Fourth "Ready for November" episode encourages voters to seek trusted info

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson interviews Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck, a member of Michigan’s Election Modernization Advisory Committee, in the fourth episode of Ready for November, a video series Benson's office launched last month to inform voters ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

Roebuck has been county clerk and register of deeds for Ottawa County since 2014 and served as elections coordinator for the county for several years prior to that. He serves as the current chairman of the Michigan Council of Election Officials, co-chair of the legislative committee of the Michigan County Clerks' Association and also serves nationwide as a member of the standards board for the Election Assistance Commission. The two talked about how Michiganders have successfully used the absentee voting option to cast their ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic in two earlier statewide elections this year. They also discussed how voters can counter the misinformation that is prevalent during this election season.

"One of the best things we can do to combat misinformation and disinformation is just consistent, accurate, factual information coming out of our office and trying to make sure that we’re staying consistent in our messaging with our voters," Roebuck said.

"As people have called our office, I think there’s some great tools out there—the Secretary of State’s office has a great website, we’ve put together our own information online— miottawa.org/securingthevote—and we're constantly trying to redirect folks to those sources and saying there’s a lot of answers to your questions here. Here’s some great places where you can get solid information on actually how this process does work."

"Voters can certainly look to you and their clerks for trusted sources of information at a time when so many others are trying to get their attention and confuse them about their rights," Secretary Benson said. "County clerks or local clerks, or our Secretary of State website, Michigan.gov/Vote, is where citizens can go to ascertain, get and spread trusted information."

For more information on Michigan’s election security efforts, visit Michigan.gov/ElectionSecurity.

This week's Ready for November episode can be found on the Michigan Department of State’s social media accounts and is archived on the MDOS informational webpage for the Nov. 3 election.
 

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