Coming up on Southwest Florida in focus.

Absentee ballots for the presidential election arrive soon.

What's happening now?

To make sure our votes are secure.

Firing lines Margaret Hoover traveled to swing states and Florida to investigate how the country is counting votes.

Find out what Florida is doing right, and what other states have learned from us ahead of the election.

That's coming up next on WGCU You're watching southwest Florida in focus.

Coming up.

Southwest Florida's growth isn't slowing down.

Business leaders say affordable housing clogged roadways, and skilled workers are all challenges that come with the expansion.

We explore the state of Southwest Florida's economy and discuss the big issues ahead.

Plus, counting the vote, firing lines Margaret Hoover joins me to talk about her new documentary investigating how election workers across the country and here in Florida are making sure the 2024 election is free, fair and secure.

And folks in Pine Island find power in art.

See the project Bringing beauty to a community still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

Hello, I'm Sandra Viktorova Thank you so much for joining us for Southwest Florida InFocus.

We start with the state of Southwest Florida's economy.

Florida's population hit 23 million people for the first time this year.

More than 300,000 people move into the state each year.

That growth has business booming and leaders looking for ways to grow.

Recently, Southwest Florida Inc. hosted the annual state of the region conference, where business and political experts, as well as thought leaders, tackled big topics like affordable housing, worker shortages and water quality.

I recently sat down with Southwest Florida Inc's CEO, Tiffany Esposito, to talk about Southwest Florida's future.

Welcome, Tiffany.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So your organization hosts the state of the region, which looks at solutions for some of the biggest issues, the biggest problems facing southwest Florida when it comes to economic prosperity.

So let's start there.

What would you say is the biggest issue or obstacle in continuing this amazing economic growth that we've seen?

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

I appreciate that question.

So the topics that we discussed at our state of the region event a few week a few days ago, excuse me, which was an extremely successful event.

We talked about workforce housing.

We talked about energy security.

We talked about talent development.

And we really talked about economic prosperity and how it relates to innovation and allowing small businesses to be very innovative.

So I know you you really look at what policies can help some of the big issues.

So I'll just ask you, what would you say or some of the changes that need to happen to kind of make our economic growth continue?

Yeah.

Thank you.

So I'll focus on housing for a moment because it's something that it's one of the top issues that we hear.

And so much of the housing crisis can be solved with some policy changes.

So what we talked about at the event was really about allowing for innovation.

So our building code is in is currently in place to protect consumers, to protect residents and citizens.

But within that we can allow for innovative ideas.

But in order to do that, we need to have policy that will get us to.

Yes.

So I'll give you a perfect example.

Icon is one of our speakers was one of our speakers, and they build 3D printed homes.

They withstand all of the hurricane requirements.

They meet all of the building codes.

But because it's something that's very different than what we're used to seeing, our local municipality and counties aren't really sure how to handle it when it comes to the building department for approval for permits.

So if we can create a policy and create systems in place at the government level to allow for innovation, we can have more products come to market that can drive down the cost of housing.

So I know you said that we are seeing amazing growth as far as the population coming in, but that is also a big obstacle infrastructure.

How big of an issue is it for our community?

Absolutely.

It's one of the main issues.

So we're seeing over a thousand people a day moved to the state of Florida.

And many of those people are coming to beautiful Southwest Florida for all those same reasons that we live in Southwest Florida.

So, the counties in both Lee and Lee Collier and Charlotte County have done a great job in trying to forecast and plan ahead.

But the reality is that roads cost a lot of money.

And with the inflation that we're seeing, the the raw materials to build roads are more expensive, just like our groceries.

Just like everything else that we're experiencing.

So the cost of the infrastructure continues to sort of hinder our ability to build as much as we need to.

But I do want to compliment the counties in Florida Department of Transportation for expediting a lot of the road improvement plans that we need in order to continue to build the infrastructure that we need, in order to move people, goods and services throughout the counties.

I know you look at future growth.

Where do you see the future growth happening as far as just, you know, which neighborhoods, communities do you expect to explode over the next decade or so?

Yeah.

Great question.

So Lehigh Acres continues to explode.

It continues to be affordable land for both residential and commercial, to come to the area and serve the needs of our community in eastern Collier County, in the Immokalee area of Emory, in the Golden Gate area, and then in Charlotte County.

We've got Babcock Ranch.

I mean, they continue to build there in, I believe, phase two, and they have many more phases after that to build.

And we're seeing just more and more people gravitate toward that type of quality of life.

So obviously hospitality, has always been, you know, one of the big HUD industries as well as health care and construction.

Do we see that growth continuing, and are there any other industries that we really believe are up and coming in Southwest Florida and really have the potential to be big in the future?

Yeah, definitely.

So we're in real estate, construction, tourism, health care.

Those remain our top industries.

And the goal is really to diversify.

So making sure that we continue to support those industries, but also we create opportunities for jobs and industries to support in addition to.

So we're seeing a ton of growth in the Elko corridor in manufacturing.

And we're seeing a lot of growth even in the Charlotte County area and the Collier County area in, a lot of work from home, you know, a lot of people who have jobs out of state who are want to, again, enjoy that quality of life that Southwest Florida has to offer.

So we're seeing a lot more, of that disposable income come from out of state into Florida.

When I recently did a story up in Charlotte County, one of the common themes I heard from a lot of, business owners, small business owners, was they couldn't find enough people.

And then there's the issue of having enough people who have the skills that they need.

Are we doing enough to support those future employees that we need?

You know, I think that the state and the local governments have done a good job, but there's always room for improvement.

Right?

And we business moves fast and we the pace of business is faster than it ever has been.

And we continue.

And we're now starting to see I enter into the marketplace and we're.

It reminds me of a few years ago when people were worried that, you know, robots were going to take their jobs like, we're definite and and we evolved and businesses adapted, and those jobs just looked different now than they did ten years ago.

And I think we're on the cusp of another evolution of that of as the as we see I come into the marketplace and as we see I continue to grow as a tool for us to do business.

It allows for speed, it allows for innovation, and it allows us to reallocate our human resources to other things.

And we're starting to see that shift.

So what we need from a policy standpoint is we need education to shift with it.

Tiffany, thank you so much.

Tiffany Esposito president and CEO with Southwest Florida, Inc. we appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Florida certainly knows election struggles.

In the 2000 presidential election, our state became what felt like the center of the political universe and for all the wrong reasons.

The world joked about our hanging chads, but that fiasco led to bipartisan reform that would make Florida a role model for elections.

Margaret Hoover, the host of Firing Line, investigated how Florida improved its voting system.

Next, I speak with her about what other states can learn from Florida's reforms.

As Americans get ready to vote in the 2024 presidential election, what's being done to make sure the count is accurate and secure?

Some states are taking steps to improve confidence in vote tabulations, while others have hit roadblocks after 2020.

Florida's missteps after the contentious 2000 election led to major reforms in a Firing Line special.

PBS' Margaret Hoover looks at how Florida fixed its problems and why those remedies may help states in 2024.

Now, I spoke with Margaret Hoover about the documentary and what she learned about the election process.

Here's our interview.

Margaret Hoover joins us now.

Margaret, welcome and congratulations on this project.

Sandra, thanks so much and thanks very much for bringing it to your viewers attention.

So, Margaret, in this documentary, you report that elections experts say our country has the most free, fair and secure elections in the world.

Now, you got an inside look in the elections process at about eight states, including Florida.

What did you find?

Look, there are a lot of surprises that I think the average voter doesn't understand about our elections.

There's been because our country is so polarized, a bit of hesitancy and doubt cast upon the integrity of our election systems here in the United States.

And what I learned is, absolutely, our elections are far and away the most transparent elections in the world.

They are the most, supervised, fisted, sort of documented and executed.

They are secure, more secure than anywhere else in the world.

More than 95%.

In fact, the Brennan Center, believes that 98%, of ballots in this election cycle will be actually have a paper trail.

All right, so one of the things that causes doubt and, about the integrity of the election is this supposition and this idea, the conspiracy theories that somehow our election data might be manipulated without having any record of it.

That's not true.

Almost 98% of our actual votes are recorded on paper, and we can go back and count them out.

So we have a secure election, a fair election, a highly transparent set of elections.

And by the way, it's not just one election.

What's so extraordinary about the United States elections is that we have 50 states that are electing electors on the same day.

More than 10,000 jurisdictions across the country.

And to be able to have 160 million people go to the polls in 10,000 different jurisdictions and be able to say that is absolutely, fundamentally the most transparent, secure and fair set of elections executed anywhere in the world, probably better than at any time in human history is a real achievement, and it's important that we know that as we head towards November.

So, Margaret, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush talked about our state's historic role in the 2000 election that was so contentious and that that eventually led to bipartisan election reform.

Several experts say that those reforms made Florida the gold standard as far as elections go.

What did Florida get right?

So in the 2000 elections, Republicans and Democrats, after Florida became a laughing stock of the nation.

And, you know, it's not fair to Florida because there it hasn't gotten credit for fixing their elections after having been, you know, the jurisdiction that supervised the closest election in American history up to that point.

I mean, 537 votes, in Florida made the difference in the 2000 election.

And the Supreme Court, of course, had to interfere in any time the Supreme Court and interfere in an election that casts an illusion or a shadow of legitimacy on an election.

Now, of course, the election was legitimate, but there were a lot of questions after Florida's 2000 debacle.

And so Jeb Bush and Democrats, I mean, Jeb Bush was a pretty humble in this documentary about his role because and as we discussed it in the interview, he brought Democrats together.

He brought, activist groups together.

He brought Republican groups together.

He brought conservative activist groups together.

Anybody who had a stake in the outcome of the elections and wanted to have a role in how to remake Florida's election system into the gold standard for the United States, had a seat at the table.

And ultimately, I mean the real tale about how successful Florida was at reforming is that when this bill passed through the Florida legislature, it passed almost unanimously.

I mean, there was no opposition.

And that, is one of the things that Jeb Bush is quite proud of and, and should be part of his legacy is that he turned Florida into a gold standard for election integrity after having supervised, one of the most, unfortunate episodes in an American election administration.

So, Margaret, you said that, on Homeland Security during the Trump administration said the 2020 election was the most secure in history.

So why are there still so many doubts about what happened?

Well, one of the reasons is that there are major candidates and a major party that insist that they still, you know, Donald Trump.

I mean, let's let's just let's not talk around it.

I mean, the Republican nominee for the presidency still claims that he won the election from time to time.

Sometimes he says he didn't and sometimes he says he did.

But, you know, any time there's a leader of a political party that casts doubt on the integrity of the election, people are going to have doubts about the integrity of the election.

And there's a whole cottage industry that has really blossomed around the conspiracy theories around the election.

And what I want to do, do is shine a light on what happened in the States.

You know, you and I and anyone in Florida can walk in to supervise with your own eyes how elections in Broward County are are administered.

Now.

Broward County is really a paragon of virtue and election administration now.

I mean, go see Joe Scott.

The election, the commissioner there.

He will walk you through exactly how ballots are processed, exactly how they're tabulated, exactly how Florida with, you know, 10 million plus votes, two time zones, knows who won the state at the end of Election Day every time because of the really the fastidiousness, the, attention to detail, and the real integrity with which they operate over there in Broward County.

And frankly, throughout the state, you can go into any area, any election, administration, county you can go in any county to see how the elections are administered and in Florida and walk away with a high degree of confidence of how it looks.

So the idea is there are conspiracy theories out there, people, sometimes people like conspiracy theories for whatever reason they gravitate towards them.

But if you want to know the truth, you can get it with your own eyes by going and observing yourself.

And that's what I want to do.

Encourage people to do it.

For people who can't do it, they can see on this documentary we went and did it with our own cameras.

I went, interviewed, you know, all of these election officials in multiple states, eight states, to to just shine a light on actually how well we do it and exactly how we do it, because it's different in every state as well.

Margaret, what would you say is my final question here?

What would you say Americans need to prepare for in this, this, this election coming up, what do you think we should expect?

Well, in part to look into a crystal ball and know what the future is.

But if past is Prolog, we do know that there are a group of folks out there who want to sow doubt in the American electorate because they want chaos.

Chaos creates uncertainty and then creates opportunity for, to, to exploit potential power grabs.

I mean, this happens all over the world.

We're not immune from it here.

So what we need to know is to be observant citizens, with our eyes wide open and to to not just trust the transparency and integrity of our system, but go check it out for ourself and tell your neighbors and your community organizations that, what you've seen, because we should know that we do have the most secure, fair elections in the world and transparent elections in the world.

But we should also be vigilant in order to continue to ensure that they remain fair, secure and transparent.

So and and know that there will be conspiracy theories.

There will be things that people say, let's let's be fastidious about evaluating them.

And ensuring, that the vote in November is free, fair, transparent and secure.

Margaret, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for your reporting on this.

Thank you so much, Sandra.

And you can watch Counting the Vote A Firing Line special with Margaret Hoover online.

You can find it on our website at WGCU.org And also look for it on our social media platforms.

Amateur and professional artists have teamed up to turn Pine Island into a community full of color.

They're painting power poles with island themes.

The project is energizing the island that's still recovering from Hurricane Ian.

Weeks.

Tara Calligan along with photographers Amanda Inscore.

Whittamore and Andrea Melendez Give us a look.

Pine Island has been known for its painted poles for over 20 years.

The project started with Andre Mueller.

One of our board of directors had this vision that we would start painting our electric poles and highlight our artists that were on the island well over time, of course, it kind of took a back burner to all the other stuff that was going on.

So back in April, the Chamber of Commerce decided it was the perfect timing to bring it back to life and get everyone out having some fun, because we've all done so much hard work getting put back together again.

Since the hurricane, we have over 140 poles approved to be painted, over 50 of them already done, or as you're driving around, we'll see those others that are in progress, and we're hoping by Christmas that we will have at least 100 of them done.

This is to represent the Matlacha hooker organization that's on the island.

We're celebrating our 26th year, and we're an organization of women.

We have around 200 right now, and they're from Greater Pine Island.

They're from Cape Coral, Fort Myers.

Our mission is to make a positive difference in the community.

No, I'm more of a mechanic than I am in one of their submissions were hooks.

If you could tell those hearts are hooks.

And here we are at the fishing pier.

It seemed to all come together.

It's just great to team up with organizations like that to beautify our island.

I think what really makes us special is just our community coming together.

The feeling of unity, just the joy that it's bringing.

A lot of the local artist, as well as the whole community, put together.

With the painting of the poles, we have discovered all sorts of artists that live out here.

So we had no idea we're here and here they are wanting to put their mark on the island.

And one family found a way to get everyone involved in the project.

We caught up with a grandmother, granddaughter and friends along Stringfellow Road as they created a fish themed pole.

Thank you.

I love that everyone's driving by and seeing us painting and hopefully it makes them happy.

And now that we drive by, we can always see it and remember when we did this.

So you see.

So cute.

Three of the girls live here on the island.

The other three live just off the island.

All six of them endured the hurricane.

So, they've all been very upfront and in touch with having to go through the rebuilding process.

So to finally do something fun, I think it was important for them to.

And to feel like, as you heard Layla say, to make people happy.

You know, you drive up and down here.

I love driving up and down here and seeing the different, different cars makes me happy.

And Lee County Electric Co-op or LCC owns those power poles.

A company spokeswoman tells GQ that El-Sisi is thrilled to supply the canvas for the project.

And she says the poles tell a story of resilience on Pine Island.

And that is all for Southwest Florida.

InFocus.

Remember, you can rewatch or share all of today's segments by checking out GCS YouTube channel.

We'd also love to get your comments and story ideas.

You can find WGU Public Media on your favorite social media platform, and be sure to join us next week when we bring you a remarkable story about a historic flag.

The American flag made by survivors of the Holocaust has a new home in southwest Florida.

Its origin is just the beginning.

Find out how caring hands and hearts are, ensuring the flag will stand for years to come.

And join us next week for that story and much more.

We'll see you then.

Have a great week everyone!