Secretary Raffensperger Recognizes Forsyth County's Election Excellence

February 28th, 2024

Atlanta - In recognition of county election offices across the state that go above and beyond, Secretary Raffensperger presented the “Georgia Election Administration Golden Leader in Excellence” (EAGLE) Award to the Forsyth County Election office on Tuesday. The EAGLE Award honors the innovations, achievements, and best practices of county election offices to ensure that safe, secure, accessible, and accurate elections are provided to Georgia’s voters. Secretary Raffensperger understands the importance of the work county election offices are doing to ensure the 2024 Presidential Election is the most secure and accurate election in Georgia’s history.

“We have tremendous work being done in Forsyth County and all around the state,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “The EAGLE award highlights that work, promoting a culture where Georgia election officials support and learn from each other, and instill complete confidence in the voters of Georgia. We thank Forsyth County for leading the way.”

Forsyth County is recognized with an EAGLE Award for their outstanding work in Election Security and Innovation, demonstrating commitment and dedication in conducting elections that prioritize adherence to all Georgia laws through developing clear training and policies, representing a commitment to secure, accurate, and fair elections, with a high level of attention to detail in everything they do.

Forsyth County is considered a leader in elections by their peers across Georgia. During the launch of Georgia’s new voter registration system, GARViS, the Forsyth County team was instrumental in the launch of the new system by helping the SOS with testing the new processes. In addition, the County leadership has invested in their elections with a state of the art elections facility.

“Mandi Smith and her team do outstanding work for the citizens of Forsyth County in preparation for and during election cycles,” said Forsyth County Commission Chairman Alfred John. “She's constantly updating her office, staff and poll workers with new technologies and training to provide the best experience possible for voters. Congratulations to Mandi and the entire elections team on this well-deserved award and for all they do for the democratic process in Forsyth County.”

The EAGLE Award will be presented monthly in 2024 to counties that have exhibited excellence in their operations, recognizing achievements in Election Security, Innovation, Accuracy, Accessibility, and Voter Education.

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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #1 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.