DeKalb County launches search for new elections director

Her replacement will be taking on a high-profile job in a large metro Atlanta county with more than 550,000 registered voters — at a time when the department is still adapting to new state laws, merely administering elections has become highly divisive and every move is being closely scrutinized, particularly in heavily Democratic communities like DeKalb.

The salary range for the job was listed as $102,843 to $159,408.

During a recent meeting, DeKalb elections board chairwoman Dele Lowman Smith said those figures are within the county’s pre-existing salary range but higher than might usually be posted — “because of the tone and tenor of elections in this country right now.”

The environment has driven some elections professionals into other fields and made the market for remaining candidates more competitive, Smith said.

Twyla Hart, the county’s existing voter registration supervisor, has been filling Hamilton’s role on a temporary basis and will continue to do so through the Nov. 2 election. But her stint as director will not extend beyond the current cycle, Smith has said.

DeKalb has also posted a listing for a deputy elections director. As envisioned, the person in that position would largely handle day-to-day operations, freeing up the new director to tackle bigger picture planning, policy and oversight.

An outside consultant’s report published in July 2020 criticized Hamilton’s over-involvement in day-to-day tasks, saying there were “simply too many moving parts to ask her to be the sole operations taskmaster for the organization while also managing policy and executive functions.”

Both new job listings are currently scheduled to close Nov. 19.