Elections Director bei Chatham County Government, GA

About the Department

We're seeking a dedicated and experienced Elections Director to lead our Elections Department. The ideal candidate will be a visionary leader with a strong background in managing electoral processes and a deep commitment to ensuring fair, transparent, and secure elections. As the Elections Director, you'll be responsible for overseeing all aspects of our department's operations, from managing staff and budgets to coordinating with key stakeholders and implementing election procedures. This is a critical role that requires a blend of administrative expertise, technical knowledge, and excellent communication skills. If you're a results-oriented professional ready to uphold the integrity of our democratic process, we encourage you to apply.

Salary will be commensurate with experience. Anticipated start date will be January 2026.

Position Duties

• Manages, directs, evaluates assigned staff, oversees employee work schedules to ensure adequate coverage and control, reviews time sheets, assesses employee concerns and problems, and counsels or disciplines as appropriate.
• Assists with or completes employee performance appraisals.
• Acts as a liaison between employees and County administrators and elected officials and trains staff in operations, policies, and procedures.
• Organizes, prioritizes, and assigns work, and prioritizes and schedules work activities to meet objectives, ensuring that staff have the proper resources needed to complete the assigned work.
• Monitors status of work in progress and inspects completed work and consults with assigned staff to assist with complex/problem situations and provide technical expertise.
• Coordinates department services with the municipalities in Chatham County, the Board of Registrars, and other departments and agencies.
• Provides progress and activity reports to County administrators and elected officials and assists with the revision of procedure manuals as appropriate.
• Develops and implements long and short-term plans, goals, and objectives for the department, evaluates effectiveness and efficiency of department activities, reviews and revises policies, procedures, plans and programs, and researches, assesses, and develops new strategies to meet current and future election and voter registration needs.
• Interprets, applies, and ensures compliance with all applicable codes, laws, rules, regulations, standards, policies, and procedures, and initiates any actions necessary to correct deviations or violations.
• Maintains a comprehensive current knowledge of applicable laws/regulations and pending legislation that may impact department operations.
• Maintains an awareness of new products, methods, trends and advances in the profession.
• Reviews and recommends legislation related to registration and elections as appropriate.
• Develops, implements, and administers departmental budget, presents and defends budget to County officials, monitors expenditures for adherence to established budgetary parameters, and prepares and submits invoices and other financial documentation.
• Directs overall functions and activities of the Board of Elections, including qualifying candidates for elective office, administering elections, recruiting and training poll workers, conducting risk limiting audits, and oversees storage, security, maintenance, preparation, and testing of election equipment.
• Ensures chain of custody processes with ballots, memory cards, and all required elections paperwork.
• Reviews and approves staffing levels during high volume and peak election periods, monitors work activities to ensure timely processing, tabulation, and adjudication, and conducts voter education seminars and poll worker/election training for citizens.
• Supervises departmental personnel to ensure that all elections are conducted in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations, reviews poll worker training packets and training calendar, organizes equipment deployment levels and poll worker assignments for election day voting, monitors voting traffic and lists of election tasks, approves ballot layouts, and implements changes in procedures to resolve issues.
• Represents department to media, voters, other departments, municipalities and other stakeholders, and serves as the liaison with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office regarding elections.
• Serves at the pleasure of the Chatham County Board of Elections, ensuring implementation of board policies, scheduling meetings, and preparing agendas and other required meeting documents.
• Represents department at Board of Commissioners meetings.
• Serves as the lead person on open records requests, answers questions and provides information, coordinates work activities, reviews status of work, and resolves problems.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration, or a closely related field, and
• At least five (5) years of progressively responsible experience managing elections, including lead or supervisory experience, and at least ten (10) years of experience in elections; or
• Any equivalent combination of experience and training.
• Must possess and maintain a valid Georgia Driver’s License.
• Must be a registered voter in Chatham County.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain the Election Official certification from Georgia’s Secretary of State.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous experience as a county or municipal department head, an operations officer, or COO.