Hall County says goodbye to Elections Director Charlotte Sosebee

Posted 4:45PM on Monday, November 14, 2016

With the General Election behind us, Hall County said goodbye to Elections Director Charlotte Sosebee today as she prepares to take a similar job in Athens-Clarke County with a reception at the Government Center.

Sosebee announced she would be taking the position in Athens-Clarke County in October but agreed to stay through the election.

"I think the 2008 (election) was the most challenging for me because that was my first presidential election as the director," Sosebee said. "But it was easy, it was easy for some reason. But going in the 'election mode', I get excited about that. I think my excitement trickles down to my workers."

"I think 2008 was probably the most challenging, but this one, it was challenging and it was similar to it but there was still something different about it. It was a higher voter turnout, so it made us have to be strategic in a lot of different things, being here in this building (the Government Center) and being able to access a good bit of this building for early voting, that made things a little different. Other than that, it was really nice."

The East Hall High graduate began working at the Hall County Elections office in 1989, after working as a teller at First National Bank, which is now Regions Bank. She took over as interim director in 2006 and then fully as director in 2011.

"My fondest memory I would think would be the relationship I've established with poll workers," Sosesbee said. "There are poll workers that were here with me when I was a clerk and had good relationships with. It seems like every general election, we loose some, but we gain more. And I've developed a lot of special, special relationships and not just running in to people that are familiar faces. I'm going to miss that."

Sosebee said she had looked at other counties, but there was something special about Clarke County and felt like it was confirmation of where she was supposed to be.

"I'm ready to go to a county that's not so large as Hall County but I can watch it grow into what Hall County is now."

Sosebee's official last day is Wednesday.