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DeKalb County's election superintendent has called on the elections board to rescind a recent voter purge, saying she was "alarmed and profoundly displeased" by civil rights lawyers' claim it was illegal.

In an email obtained by the Daily Report that was sent to election officials and attorneys with the ACLU and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Thursday, Superintendent Dele Loman Smith recommended that the county law department decide whether the board violated the law when it categorically removed all registered voters listed at a single address in Decatur from the voter rolls.

The Peer Support, Wellness, and Respite Center is located at the address at issue and advertises itself as a center available to people with mental disabilities who need housing as an alternative to hospitalization.

Smith also recommended that the administrative coordinator for the DeKalb County Voter Registration and Elections office, who owns the property in question with her husband, be barred from further involvement in the matter due to a conflict of interest.

Smith called out administrator coordinator Mary Frances Weeks after Weeks responded on Thursday to an Aug. 20 letter from ACLU legal director Sean Young and John Powers, counsel for the Washington, D.C., lawyers committee. The letter, which included a public records request, put county election officials on notice that they do not have authority to determine what constitutes housing, "especially for those hardest hit by life's struggles."

The lawyers contended that the center may serve as a residence for people struggling to find permanent housing and may be the only address for people who are otherwise homeless.

In a letter delivered to the ACLU on Thursday, Weeks said she and her husband own the center. She said the challenge that led to the voter purge was first made by the city of Decatur, which couldn't identify 444

Sycamore Drive as a legitimate address.

Weeks said the legal address is actually 207 Springdale St., but because the driveway is at 444 Sycamore, it "is easier for the clients to locate it."

"Obviously, I was aware that no one resides there," she said. "If you need us to have the director confirm that there is no one living there, we will be happy to do so. … Regardless, there is no such address as 444 Sycamore Drive in Decatur."

Smith said she was never told about Weeks' conflict or that the voter purge "did not comply with the legal requirements that it be made by an elector rather than a city or other entity."

The lack of disclosure and Weeks' apparent conflict was compounded by having Weeks respond to the civil rights lawyers "in a manner that I found to be both defensive and unresponsive," Smith said. "I am alarmed and profoundly displeased to have learned more information about this matter from an outside organization than was shared by staff."

Smith said she voted for the purges in the belief that all pertinent facts were shared with the board and the letter of the law was followed. But, she continued, "I cannot carry out my duties as a board member if those basic expectations are not met. This situation has only exacerbated the distrust of the board among members of the public, and unless it is promptly and satisfactorily rectified, it will undermine the cohesive functioning of the board as well."

On Thursday, Young called Weeks' response on behalf of the elections board and the voter registration office "inadequate on its face."

"We look forward to reviewing all the documents concerning the purge," he said. "We just want to know what happened."

Powers said he was "puzzled" by Weeks' letter, which he said raises further questions about the actual reasons behind the purge.

"It is troubling that the board's official response came from an employee who has an interest in the property at the voters' address," he said. "The residents of DeKalb County, and especially the voters who were purged, deserve transparency and real answers about what motivated their removal from the voter rolls."