- March 14, 2025
Trey Corbett
AGE: 45
FAMILY: From Northeast Florida, Minorccan (original St. Augustine settlers)
QUIRKY FACT: Teaches Discoverland Sunday School at Palm Coast Community Church, former paratrooper
BIO: Trey Corbett is a military veteran and a graduate of the University of North Florida, with a bachelor’s degree in literature and psychology. For many years, he was a district sales manager of a major jewelry company and is now the vice president of America’s Choice Title in Palm Coast.
This office is invisible to most voters. How does the supervisor impact the average resident?
I think that that’s something that the new supervisor, whoever of us gets in there, should address. I have worked on these campaigns; I volunteer. In the last mayoral run, I made a lot of calls to people who didn’t know where their polling places were, didn’t know that there was a race going on. Some told me that they showed up to their typical polling place, and it was closed. So they didn’t end up voting because they didn’t have the time to bother with it.
So I think the new supervisor of elections, should have a background in marketing and know how to reach out to the public. I certainly have that background. I’ll make sure I reach out to the public by attending a wide variety of functions. A politician should, because they’re paid by the taxpayer. ...
I think whoever gets into that office, you’re a political person, you need to project that office and yourself out there. And even if it takes spending some of the personal money you’ve been getting, this office pays a decent salary, you can donate a little bit to local charity. ...
Also I think the current supervisor should be friendly with the paper, should also be friendly with the county commissioners. ... These things can be raised by more of an Internet presence.
If you were notified of a problem with the registration of a candidate, how would you respond?
First thing I’m going to do is I’m going to talk to that individual first. That is not something that’s going to be done in a public forum. It’s not something that’s going to be politicized; it’s not going to have any acrimony in it. ... Let the candidate know that there is an issue, speak to the candidate. ... You find out what the issues are, and if there is a problem and you need to resolve it, you’re going to question that person whom you have found the problem with and then certainly you’re going to go to Tallahassee and look up the state statutes. ...
Don’t throw the guy under the bus as he’s trying to run; get together with the state, find out what you can do to resolve it, or at least bring the question to them. And then let people know, including the candidate, in a polite way.
If elected, would you expand, condense or leave the number of precincts the same?
As a conservative, I don’t believe we should spend more money than we take in, in any form of government. ... The taxpayers need to save money, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean that you sacrifice costumer service. Because after all, and I have spent 20 years of my life in a customer service industry making customers happy, and that’s the bottom line; that’s what you do. So if there are people that are unhappy about the condension of the polling places, you find out what it was about them that made them unhappy and you try to fix it without spending a lot of money. I think by condensing the polling places it’s a good idea because it’s going to save the taxpayer money. Do I think it should’ve been done the way it was? Absolutely not. I think it was done too quickly and precipitously without proper time to get prepared for it and let voters know what was going to happen. ...
Is early voting worth the time and money for the county?
Yes. ... Voting is one of our principal rights, and there are people in the community who need help and there are people in the community who don’t have time. And you don’t have a tremendous amount of early voting locations. ... I think that’s a good thing to do.
If elected, what changes would you make to the Flagler County elections office?
I would take inventory of what’s there. ... I would interview each employee that is in there. ... There is a lack of customer-service-oriented atmosphere when you go into the Supervisor of Elections Office. ...
The supervisor of elections should make it easy for the voters to know where and when they’re going to vote, to make sure that they understand where their polling places are, not have a change right before a primary or major election or any election. ...
If I become the supervisor of elections, you will see way more involvement in the community at both local charities and chamber functions and things of the like.
Having run businesses for 20 years, I understand that by going in and shaking things up a bit you get the greatest change. And again, it’s all about the customers who come in the door, and the customers are the voting public and people coming in to run for respective offices.
