This story has been updated.

DeKalb County, GA —  The DeKalb Department of Voter Registration and Elections is walking back a request for poll managers to provide their party affiliation ahead of the Nov. 7 election cycle.

Elections Coordinator Paul Robinson sent the email on Oct. 25, and it appears to allude to comments Republican VRE Board Member Nancy Jester made at a meeting earlier this month.

At that meeting, the elections board approved a list of 174 poll managers, one for each precinct. At that meeting, Jester said that some people had expressed concerns about balancing the political leanings of poll workers and managers. Jester asked if any of the managers had expressed partisan leanings, and also said that she would like to know how long each manager had worked for the department for the future.

Robinson’s Oct. 25 email says, “One of the members of the DeKalb County Board of Voter Registration and Elections has requested a breakdown of information regarding the voting location managers’ length of service and party affiliation, if any.”

The email asked recipients to complete a survey. The survey has since been removed. A poll manager who received the email said the survey asked for the name, length of time as a poll manager, and party affiliation. The choices were Democrat, Republican, Independent or Prefer Not to Say. The survey also asked for the county where the poll manager lives.

Jester clarified to Decaturish that she wasn’t asking the department to survey poll managers.

“The political affiliation of poll workers is collected on their application,” she said. “It’s been a part of the application since before I was on the board. I would like to know the responses of the applicant pool in general and those that were hired. To the extent possible I think an attempt to be politically balanced should be considered so long as we can hire qualified workers. There should be no need to survey any worker as it is my understanding that this data is requested in the application.”

Here’s the initial email from Robinson.

Decaturish asked Elections Director Keisha Smith about the email, and a VRE spokesperson said they would investigate and respond later. After our inquiry, Robinson sent a follow-up email advising managers to disregard his earlier email.

 

Smith sent a follow-up email on Thursday morning, apologizing for the initial communication to poll workers.

“We regret any confusion this caused,” she said. “Sharing details about your party affiliation is not expected or required to serve as a poll worker.”

Writer Sara Amis contributed to this story. 

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