The Gilmer County Registrars Office and Elections Department received an award from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recognizing county election offices that go above and beyond in serving Georgia voters.
According to the secretary of state’s office, the EAGLE (Election Administration Golden Leader in Excellence) Award honors “the innovations, achievements and best practices of county election offices to ensure that safe, secure, accessible and accurate elections are provided to Georgia voters.”
“There are some regional election directors, registrars and probate judges (who) everyone from the surrounding counties is calling them and saying how do you handle this, how do you handle that?’ You’re recognized as one of the top counties in our entire state,” Raffensperger told members of the registrars and elections staff when presenting the award last week.
“We have 159 counties, so we don’t give this award lightly to anyone. We’re very specific on who we hand this out to. When we see great performance, we want to reward it.”
Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins said the award was earned by the hard work of the entire elections crew, which includes office employees and poll
workers.
“I have great employees, (and) great teams of poll workers, people who have been with me for years. This is an award for all of y’all,” she said, while also thanking the county commissioners, sheriff and others in attendance for their support.
Scott Chastain, county elections superintendent and probate judge, said elections have become much more challenging with changes since 2020 and since the new voting system was put in place.
“It used to be you just did it during election season, but now it seems like the whole year is an election season,” he added.
The local elections staff has handled those challenges well, Chastain noted.
“I want to congratulate all of you for a job well done. You deserve this,” he told Watkins and her team.