Janine Eveler looks back on 12 years running Cobb elections

Apr. 8—MARIETTA — After more than a dozen years in the position, Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler is stepping down on Friday.

"I've enjoyed it, but I really felt the weight of it, too," Eveler said in an interview. "It's hard work. And there's a lot of people watching what you're doing. And so you got to make sure as much as possible that you're doing it right."

After working in the elections office full-time for five years, Eveler was hired as elections director by the Board of Elections in 2010 to replace Sharon Dunn.

Since then, the one constant, she said, has been change.

Eveler has led the elections office as Georgia's third largest county transitioned from majority-Republican to majority-Democratic. Cobb has added roughly 84,000 residents in that time.

In an era of increasing polarization, she's also withstood withering criticism from both sides of the aisle.

Eveler has seen election laws be rewritten, new voting systems implemented, and public perceptions of elections shift. Her department has moved twice, and nearly all the staff she worked with in 2010 has turned over.

Board of Elections member Pat Gartland, an appointee of the Cobb GOP, called Eveler a "sharp lady" and "a class act."

"She had so much responsibility, and as Cobb grew, she grew with it, and her staff grew, I believe," Gartland said.

Second career

Eveler got involved with elections after moving here from California, where she worked for 22 years in the telecommunications industry. Searching for a job in her new home, she found that most telecoms jobs were located in Norcross. She and her family lived in Powder Springs.

She started working as a part-time seasonal clerk for Cobb elections shortly before the 2004 general election, but did not plan to make it her second career. Eveler spoke about getting the election "bug" after her first forays into the industry.

"Each election is really different. And there's a lot of adrenaline as you're in the midst of it. Everybody's working together for a common goal," she said.

In April 2005, she began working full-time as an administrative clerk. She was later made elections manager, one of the three positions directly under elections director.

The elections chief for Georgia's third-largest county has seen a lot in her tenure, but said retiring this spring was how she always planned it. Her 18 years with the county made her eligible for a pension in May of this year (Once three weeks of annual leave are applied, her last day on the payroll is May 5). The timing is also better than leaving during an election year, she said.

The Board of Elections is in the midst of hiring her successor. Eveler said she's contributed a bit by telling them what qualities they should look for. The chosen candidate should have knowledge of Georgia elections systems, she said, along with management skills.

"I obviously would like to see somebody that has both. But I really do think they need to know Georgia elections, there's so many details. And to know the election law, I think is going to be really important," she said.

Eveler views each election as a project. The job is inherently cyclical, and requires someone who can manage those peaks.

Erick Allen, a former state representative who now chairs the Cobb Democratic Party, said Eveler's successor needs to "know the law and follow the law."

"Don't try to interpret it and try to make decisions based on what you think and what you feel ... Right now there's a huge movement across the country for activism from the supervisor of elections. And that's one thing we can say Janine did not do ... we need someone who has that same philosophy," Allen said.

Former Cobb Republican Party Chair Jason Shepherd said Eveler was accessible, transparent and quick to act when problems arose. She was always willing to answer her cell phone whenever he had questions or concerns. He'd like to see the next elections director continue that openness.

Shepherd said he didn't always see eye-to-eye with Eveler, and also would like the next director to have more willingness "to question things that may look suspicious."

Highs and lows

Eveler has overseen smooth and chaotic elections. Some of the most memorable were in 2020, when the primary was a low point, but the general was a high point.

"After all of the heartache of the first part of the year with the pandemic ... Election Day in 2020 — November — went really smoothly," she said.

The June 2020 primary, on the other hand, was "horrible," the worst election she's worked.

Eveler said it was a perfect storm — the primary was postponed by COVID-19, her office was implementing a new voting system, and employees had quit because they were worried about being able to social distance. There were restrictions on in-person meetings, and a lack of adequate training for poll workers.

As a result, voters waited in line for hours, and dozens of precincts did not open on time. Close races took more than a week to call as the county struggled to count a record number of absentee ballots.

"It was an awful, awful day. That was definitely the worst day," she said.

But November, she said, went swimmingly.

That wasn't how some people saw it, however. In the wake of the election, President Donald Trump spread claims of widespread election fraud in Georgia, claims Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger dismissed as false.

"After that, the tone of people's scrutiny, I guess, on our work, it did change," she said.

Recounts didn't change the result, and lawsuits challenging the election were tossed out by judges. Those recounts included Raffensperger ordering a statewide hand recount to prove the system was reliable.

Eveler said such an extensive recount had never been done before.

"There are other states that have hand-marked paper ballots ... And, to my understanding, they've expressed surprise that that could be done, because they've never done it either," Eveler said.

In Cobb, the hand recount was conducted over five days at the Jim Miller Park event center. On some days, her staff asked to shut down early, because people observing the process had made them feel uncomfortable. Some staff were followed in their cars.

In another incident, a truck carrying shredded envelopes (not ballots) was followed by a woman who posted the trucking company's name on social media, Eveler said. After receiving threats, the company severed ties with Cobb elections.

While the threats against election workers weren't as bad as in Fulton County, "there were things that went on that went a little too far," Eveler said.

The hand recount was followed by a statewide machine recount. Then the state conducted a signature audit of absentee ballots in Cobb to test the system's reliability. The results stood.

Eveler took the scrutiny in stride. She said there was once a time when Democrats were more skeptical, and questioned the electronic voting systems.

Criticism is a constant in her job, and something she sees as necessary, when made in good faith.

"Now, with the advent of the Trump thing, the Republicans are the ones that are always wanting to be convinced, wanting explanations, asking questions. ... Both of those groups, when they were doing that, have really challenged us to be better. You know, I'm not adverse to people doing that."

Democrats now, she said, are less concerned about the voting system than they are about voting access. In the 2020 primary, for instance, Cobb was accused of voter suppression after the issues that plagued that election.

"We really have gotten it from all sides. But it's a constant thing. You're always going to have people scrutinize what you're doing in elections, because it's so important. And that's been really kind of the joy for me, is knowing that what we do is so important," she said.

The political left has often asked her office to provide more voting locations and methods, more voting days and longer voting hours.

Eveler has had to balance those requests, some from elections board members, with the staff and resources she has.

Eveler said her office has 51 positions (31 are full-time, 20 are part-time). Ten positions are currently vacant, which she said is not unusual. The office has a group of core employees, but many people work one election cycle and decide it's not for them.

"We're not at a critical point right now," she said.

Allen said he hasn't always agreed with Eveler's decisions, but said she was always fair and responsive.

"I would also say that a majority of those issues were not just Janine ... she's accountable to a board ... We've seen a lot more (voting) access, still have a ways to go," he said.

During the runoff for the 2020 general election, the Cobb GOP sued the board and reached a consent agreement regarding access for poll watchers.

Shepherd said that despite that suit, he thinks Eveler did a good job with a difficult set of circumstances.

"In a situation where you look at a county as big as Cobb County is ... that's a massive undertaking to manage ... I would give Janine a solid A on all of it, that she performed very well under immense pressure and immense scrutiny."

Under the Gold Dome

Allen said Eveler oversaw "probably some of the most sweeping voting legislation that we've seen since the Voting Rights Act in the mid-60s."

The controversial Senate Bill 202, passed in the 2021 legislative session, overhauled Georgia's voting laws.

"I think she managed it well. I think she was a perfect person for the task ... was always fair and well-studied," Allen said.

In this year's legislative session, lawmakers banned local elections offices from accepting grants from outside organizations.

Cobb was one of several counties to receive so-called "Zuckerbucks" in 2020 — funds from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, which is partially funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Cobb received a $5.6 million grant. Eveler said she didn't see any issue with the grant, which came with no strings attached.

But she also said the new law didn't bother her much, as she hadn't planned to apply for such a grant again.

"The writing was on the wall that that wasn't going to be looked favorably upon," she said.

Another legislative change made in recent years was lawmakers instituting a shorter, 28-day runoff period. Eveler said that's not enough time for election offices.

In 2022, her office made several errors in the wake of redistricting. Some voters were given ballots with incorrect legislative districts, or were mistakenly included or excluded from last year's cityhood referendums.

At the time, she said that the legislature had not left enough time to implement new district lines between the 2022 session and the primary election shortly after.

"In some cases, they will listen to us about that. But if they have an idea of something they want to accomplish, that we're not in favor of, they're going to accomplish it, they're going to just go ahead and do it," she said of lawmakers. "So we usually just try and get the best case for us and the best language that will not hurt us too much. "

Another major error occurred in last year's November election, when her office failed to mail more than 1,000 absentee ballots on time (affected voters were given extra time to return them).

The issues last year, she said, were caused in part by her losing her three top lieutenants.

"She took ownership and she made it right," Shepherd said of the absentee ballot debacle.

Next chapter

In her retirement, Eveler has several trips planned with her husband; the couple enjoys travel.

She has two adult sons and two grandchildren who she hopes to spend more time with.

There are also long-delayed projects at home she wants to address.

"And then after that, I don't know. Maybe I'll try something new. Maybe I'll help out here. I don't know. We'll see," she said.

Both Gartland and Allen said she'll be missed.

"She just would get the job done and she was someone you could count on. And I hate to see her go," Gartland said.

Allen said Eveler was remarkably patient and always prepared.

"I think she's going to be missed and very difficult to replace," he said.