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Phil Johnson, Unsung Hero
Unsung Hero: Phil Johnson
Works long hours to ensure Newton County has ‘good elections’
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By TOM SPIGOLON
tspigolon@covnews.com
A lofty salary was not prompting Phil Johnson to dedicate most of his waking hours at times in 2020 to making sure Newton County elections ran smoothly.
However, he said he had “no idea how challenging it would be” when asked in 2019 to serve as chairman of the Newton County Board of Elections.
“When you take a job, you make a commitment,” Johnson said. “I think elections are the bedrock on which government operates.”
The challenge — other than safety and health concerns every organization faced with a then-unknown virus in 2020 — included Newton County voters casting up to five times the usual number of absentee ballots because of safety concerns around COVID-19.
It also included working past midnight and coming back the following morning to complete the counting of absentee ballots in the June primary elections.
Johnson, who receives about $100 per monthly meeting, was among those counting the mailed-in ballots that required far more time to verify than those cast by machine.
However, through four elections, two recounts and voters sometimes having to endure long lines to cast ballots, Johnson said his goal was always “to get it right and secure.”
“I do feel we held a good election in Newton County,” he said.
Johnson has been a practicing attorney in Newton County for more than 44 years with a law practice that concentrates on commercial real estate, business law and estate matters.
He also formerly was heavily involved in banking and commercial and residential development in Newton County.
Johnson earned his undergraduate degree from Georgia State University and his law degree from the University of Georgia Law School.
Then, soon after he finished law school, he won election to a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 1976 and served two terms before being succeeded by Denny Dobbs.
At the local level, he ran for chairman of the
Newton County Board of Commissioners but lost in a Democratic Primary runoff to eventual winner Marcello Banes.
In business, Johnson was an active residential and commercial developer in the 1980s.
He also served on the board of First National Bank of Newton County and was its acting CEO for a time in the early 1980s.
Johnson said his goal as elections board chairman is to make the “voting experience” the best it can be within the resources the board of commissioners gives the Elections and Voter Registration office.
He noted some nonprofits gave grants to the county totaling $150,000.
Grant funds were used to pay temporary workers hired to process the absentee votes and to rent tents to protect most early voters from the elements as they waited in line in the rear of the county administration building, he said.
Johnson said he wants the board this year to request a fifth full-time employee from the Newton County Commission to help manage the rapidly growing voter rolls — which increased by about 60% between 2016 and 2020.
The number of registered voters increased from around 50,000 in 2016 to 80,000 in 2020, he said.
“I won’t be surprised if it’s 100,000 in 2022,” Johnson said.
He said he wanted to “take a hard look” at the county’s elections infrastructure.
Johnson also said he wants to see if the number of voters in each precinct justifies eliminating or merging some of the 22 voting precincts it maintains and staffs on Election Day.
For example, only five voting machines are needed to serve the Newborn precinct where 784 registered voters reside in eastern Newton.
However, the board employs 24 machines to serve the Downs precinct in western Newton, which has 6,215 registered voters.
Johnson said poll workers need more training now with absentee voting becoming more popular and updated laws adding new requirements for verifying voters’ identities.
Voting is getting more complex and a spotlight that formerly was not as focused on part-time poll workers now burns brightly after the 2020 presidential elections, he said.
“They’ve got to be almost perfect,” Johnson said.
