Fayette fires elections supervisor

The recently-fired supervisor of the Fayette County Elections & Voter Registration said Wednesday he was “very surprised” by his June 14 termination.

“They claim it was performance but I’ve never had any problems with any election I’ve been involved with,” said Tom Sawyer who had directed the elections department for 10 years. “I really wish I had more of an indication of what was going on (regarding the termination).”

Sawyer’s dismissal comes four months after he returned to work after recovering from a stroke.

The head of the elections board said Wednesday Sawyer was terminated for performance issues that occured before he got sick.

“It had been an ongoing problem,” said Darryl Hicks, who became chairman of the elections board about three months ago. “One of the main issues, in addition to making sure he followed through on providing minutes and agendas to the board, he had to do the payroll for his department. He missed the deadline (recently). In fact, I had to get involved to make sure he got the payroll completed.”

The 68-year-old Sawyer shepherded the department through the county's controversial four-year legal battle over voting rights with the NAACP. That case resulted in a new voting system of four districts and one at-large district instead of its nearly 200-year-old at-large system.

Two elections supervisors will manage the elections department until a permanent replacement is hired, Hicks said.