Gilmer County Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins has received an award that recognizes excellence in managing elections.
Watkins was announced as this year’s recipient of the Frances Duncan Award at the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials Conference held Aug. 29-Sept. 1 at Jekyll Island.
Duncan, the award’s namesake, was the first full-time director of the Georgia Elections Division, said Watkins. She was named to that role in 1967 under direction of then-Secretary of State Ben Fortson and held the position until retiring in 1989.
The Frances Duncan Award originated in 1988 by way of then-Secretary of State Max Cleland. Gilmer Probate Judge and Elections Superintendent Scott Chastain said each of Georgia’s 159 counties can nominate someone for the honor.
“We decided we wanted to nominate Tammy because of the job she’s always done, but, in particular, during the January Senate runoff in Georgia,” he added.
Election offices across the state faced numerous challenges last year, including the introduction of new ballot-recording voting machines.
At first, it looked like informing voters and election staff about the new technology would be the biggest hurdle of the presidential election, but the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic and statewide recounts added further complications.
“Our biggest thing was that our voters were not sure if they trusted the new machines, so we did our best to reassure them that the new equipment is operating correctly,” said Watkins.
Watkins faced another challenge shortly before the January state Senate runoff. She contracted COVID-19, as did her husband, longtime local elections worker Gary Watkins.
“She coordinated and ran pretty much all the early voting from her house while being in contact with her office,” said Chastain. “We also lost 15 other poll employees, so we had to shuffle to try to get folks in place where we could carry on the election as normal. Tammy orchestrated all of that. (Despite) being sick, she made sure everything went as it always has. We felt that was extremely important and a great achievement.”
“Me and my registrar both got it at the same time, so I had to call the people who were there and say, ‘you’re going to have to take the bull by the horns,’ and they did,” Watkins added.
Watkins said she was fortunate to have a well-trained and highly capable staff already in place.
“They knew their jobs and what to do. I checked in with them and was there when they had a problem,” she added.
“You’re only as good as the people who work for you, and there’s no way I could ever do elections without my early voting poll workers, my workers on Election Day, the delivery guys, our office staff and our ballot team, as well as the support of the commissioners and Judge Chastain.”
Watkins returned to working in person after testing negative, and her first day back was the day of the Senate runoff.
“I tried to get all my managers to come work at least one day of early voting. A lot of them don’t normally do that, but I invited them to because it gave them some hands-on experience before Election Day. They all did wonderful,” she said.
The election team worked the runoff with a skeleton crew in place, Chastain noted.
“We had a good bit of turnover. We lost some (poll workers) because of the new machines. Then, when COVID came, some got sick and some said my health’s not so good, and I don’t want to be exposed to that many people,” he added. “With Tammy and her team and everything they’d done, there was a good group in place. Even though it was stressful, I knew she’d done a good job preparing people.”
Watkins is proud that, despite issues in some other counties, Gilmer’s manually recounted election results matched the machines’ tally.
“When we did the audit for the presidential election, we matched totally to the machines and weren’t off by one,” she said.
The new voting machines remain a topic of concern for some local voters, and the local registrar’s office is still explaining how the process works, Watkins noted.
“It’s a different machine. It looks different, and it’s bigger than what they’d been using. I get calls at least once a week (about the new machines), and it’s a matter of educating people about it,” she said. “I take the time to explain the process and how it works. I’m glad to do it.”
Watkins has worked in the elections superintendent’s office since 2003 and the registrar’s office since 2012. She’d worked local elections since the early ‘90s before becoming chief registrar in 2019.
Watkins, who was able to meet Frances Duncan before Duncan’s passing in 2010, feels honored and humbled to have been chosen to receive the award.
“She was a wealth of knowledge and a very well-respected lady. I feel very blessed. It’s something to cry about,” she said.