New elections leader holding virtual ‘listening sessions’

Keisha Smith started as executive director in Dekalb last month.

Keisha Smith, the new executive director of Dekalb County’s elections department, has been on the job just about a month now.

She’s pretty new to elections in general, having spent the last several years leading a workforce development authority in Virginia. But the board that hired her was more interested in leadership qualities and executive experience than a preestablished understanding of voting processes — and Smith is feeling pretty good about things so far.

“I knew what I was signing up for,” she said this week during a video interview from Athens, where she was attending the annual Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials conference.

“Just being able to come in and hit the ground running has been a success because of the support that

I’ve had from the staff, the board and just other internal stakeholders.”

The executive director position is technically a new one altogether for Dekalb County elections, which is moving on from beleaguered former leader Erica Hamilton. In a department previously criticized for a lack of organization and a largely reactive approach to problem solving, Smith’s job is more about big picture strategy and planning.

A yet-to-be-hired deputy director will be more involved in dayto-day operations.

“We’re not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” said elections board Chair Dele Lowman Smith. “But we’re open to revisiting all assumptions about how work should be done.”

Lowman Smith praised the new director, saying she had “come in and done everything [the elections board] expected and hoped for, and then some.”

There’s still plenty of work to be done.

Smith, many other elections officials across the state, and plenty of voters are still learning intricacies of last year’s controversial voting legislation. Party primaries — which kick off a busy 2022 cycle and figure to be the first high-turnout elections under the new state law — are just two months away.

With that, the county’s hardto-shake reputation for dysfunction, and a genuine desire to hear from the public, Dekalb’s new elections director recently announced a series of virtual listening sessions.

The first event, which officials said will also seek to educate the public on voting legislation and its impacts, is scheduled for 11 a.m. today. Additional sessions are slated for Monday evening and lunchtime Tuesday.

All of the events will be available via Zoom and streamed on Dekalb County TV.

For more information, visit Dekalbvotes.com.

“Ensuring the integrity of elections and rebuilding, or enhancing, the public’s trust,” Smith said. “That’s my objective here.”

isha Smith