Monroe County has a new Elections Supervisor, but she’s a very familiar face to most Monroe County voters.
Last month, the Monroe County Board of Elections & Registration promoted the county’s longtime Assistant Elections Supervisor April Dumas to the top spot in the elections office.
Dumas said she fully understands the magnitude of her responsibility in her new role leading the elections office.
“I enjoy helping people,” Dumas said. “People gave up their lives for us to have the freedom and the rights to vote, and I feel like that’s important.”
Dumas’ appointment came shortly after former Elections Supervisor Kaye Warren decided to retire after 14 years in the Elections Office, including the past nine as the county’s first-ever Elections Supervisor following the 2017 creation of the Board of Elections & Registration.
Dumas, formerly April Smith, is a Peach County native who grew up in Macon-Bibb County. As an adult, she relocated permanently to Monroe County, where she met her husband of 16 years, Nathan Dumas.
Dumas, who previously worked in a tax office and a flower shop, had no prior election experience in 2012 when her mother-in-law Nancy Dumas asked her to be a volunteer poll worker for early voting during the June 2012 election cycle. Dumas said she got to know Board of Registrars members like Rosalyn Harbuck and Linda Davis during the process and her one-time poll experience unexpectedly turned into a full-time job in the county’s elections office.
Since then, Dumas has worked alongside Warren for the past 14 years picking up as much knowledge as she could along the way. Dumas said Warren researched everything extensively.
“She (Kaye) kept notes on everything. She kept files on everything,” Dumas said of Warren. “I think that’s helpful. It’s been helpful for me coming in because I can look back and see what she did for certain elections, see how many ballots she ordered and stuff like that.”
Dumas said she plans to be as meticulous as Warren in her record-keeping with the only difference being that Warren preferred files while Dumas prefers books.
Dumas said she was surprised that Warren decided to retire so quickly. However, she knew Warren had waited a long time to be a grandmother, so her decision to go babysit her five-month-old granddaughter wasn’t a shocking one.
“She’s always wanted a grandbaby,” Dumas said of Warren. “But I really thought she’d be here a little longer anyway. I was hoping.”
Dumas said she always imagined that her experience working under Warren would lead to her eventually assuming the Elections Supervisor role, but it just happened a little swifter than expected. Dumas said don’t worry about her retiring any time soon. She’s just ready for an assistant to be hired to help her the way she supported Warren.
“I’m excited,” Dumas said of her promotion. “I don’t plan to go anywhere. Hopefully I can find somebody that I can work well with that can come in.”
Dumas said the public should not expect any big changes from the Elections Office under her leadership.
However, the Monroe County Board of Elections & Registration already put in motion prior to Dumas’ hiring two key changes in election day venues that Dumas will oversee in her first major election this November. Dumas said the Board of Elections has been seeking for a while to consolidate at least several of the county’s 14 elections precincts. The first consolidation will take place in November when the Evers precinct, which previously voted at the Johnstonville fire station on English Road, consolidates with the Forsyth precinct, which previously voted at the Monroe County Recreation Department. Beginning on Nov. 3, 2026 (General Election Day for the mid-terms), voters who typically vote at either the Evers or Forsyth precincts will now vote at the Monroe County Conference Center.
Dumas said the venue changes for Evers and Forsyth were supposed to go into effect prior to the May 2026 primary elections, but the Board of Elections did not have time to sufficiently advertise the changes. Dumas said other voting precincts may be consolidated in future years, but the county will continue to offer precincts to citizens on the far geographic reaches of the county like High Falls, Culloden, Juliette, and Bolingbroke.
Interestingly, Dumas is not the first member of her family to be a Monroe County department head. Dumas’ husband Nathan assumed in 2024 the Director role of the county’s Solid Waste Department, where he oversees operations of the county’s 13 recycling centers. April Dumas said Nathan, who began working for Monroe County over a decade ago, has been a steady presence during this time of transition, calming her nerves about the change.
As the Elections Supervisor, Dumas will oversee not only Election Day at the county’s precincts, but also weeks of Early Voting at the county’s new elections office in the A-frame building at 479 Holiday Circle as well as the management of over 40 volunteer poll workers. Dumas’ other major task will be to ensure that Monroe County elections remain as safe and secure as they always have.
“We’re real good about keeping things sealed,” Dumas said. “Things are under lock and key. Ballots are always under lock and key. The absentee ballot applications are always checked and double checked. Signatures, driver’s licenses, all that good stuff.”
In her free time, Dumas enjoys spending time with her family. She has two adult children, A.J. and Stormie, and three grandchildren, Wyatt, 7, William, 6, and Austyn, 3.
