Chatham County Elections Supervisor Billy Wooten will be ending his tenure to take on a part-time role as an election officer.

Wooten stepped up to lead the Board of Elections in an interim capacity in 2020, following the retirement of former Elections Supervisor, Russell Bridges. Soon after, he took on the job full-time, and he has served there since.

As supervisor, Wooten doubled the size of the staff at the Board of Elections Office, enhanced poll worker training, and established the election annex building, where all election equipment is now housed, maintained, and protected.

Wooten plans to have more time to travel, and spend quality time with his music, plants and pets, but said he’s not done with elections work yet.

"I want to be busy. I want to make a contribution,” Wooten said. “I enjoy election work, but it's time."

Wooten will begin in his new part-time capacity in February 2026.

Wooten’s history with Chatham County Board of Elections began in 1998. Wooten recalls hearing a poll clerk questioning a voter about their ID.

"And it seemed to me that the poll worker was trying to intimidate this young person from casting a vote, and I found that to be wrong in a lot of ways,” Wooten said. “I thought to myself, you know, I've got time. I could volunteer and work Election Day, and I could understand how this process works. It just stirred me to get involved.”

That year, Wooten started as a poll clerk, checking ID cards and ushering voters through his precinct.

In 2013, he was asked to assist with poll worker training, and he eventually became the lead trainer. In 2018, he began assisting the elections supervisor with technician training and scheduling. As supervisor, Wooten guided Chatham County through the two highest turnout elections ever recorded in 2020 and 2024. Additionally, in 2020, Wooten led the training for new voting machines, and guided the office through the 2020 pandemic election.

Chatham County Board of Elections Chairman Tom Mahoney said Wooten has been a faithful and reliable public servant in a time of transition and turbulence.

"Chatham County is the fifth largest county in Georgia, the largest outside of metro Atlanta, and Mr. Wooten used his years of managerial experience to expand staffing to keep pace with our rapid growth. With the help and support of the County and our Board, he and his staff managed implementation of an entirely new voting system rolled out in the midst of the global pandemic. The new system required acquisition and build-out of a new warehouse six times larger than our old storage space in just a few months. Then we had to quickly pivot to use that warehouse to process over 40,000 absentee ballots — about ten times more than typical elections. Mr. Wooten and his staff trained elections workers on the new system as it was being delivered," Mahoney said. "Mr. Wooten has certainly earned retirement from the Supervisor's position, and we are lucky to have his continued service at the Board of Elections."