This Election Day, county clerk races are on the ballot across New York. In Broome County, voters will head to the polls to select their county clerk Tuesday. Democrat Nick Libous and Republican Aaron Martin are vying for the role.
The county clerk position is an important one that sometimes gets overlooked by voters. But don’t be surprised if a former city mayor or state politician is running for the position.
Jamie Romeo was a New York state Assembly member representing part of Rochester and nearby towns. She has been the Monroe county clerk for five years and now she’s president of the state’s Association of County Clerks.
WSKG’s Celia Clarke spoke with Romeo recently. She began by asking her what a county clerk does…
Jamie Romeo: There really isn't a short answer to that, because [the] county clerk’s office do so much. Not all county clerks do the same exact services in every jurisdiction.
Many of us are agents of New York State DMV. So we're known for running the DMVs locally. We primarily are, though, the recording office for land transactions in communities, all of your mortgages and your deeds. We have all of the court work from older but also current cases for county and supreme court, depending on your jurisdictions. The truth is, though, is that most people don't realize your life is impacted by county clerk's office, whether you have directly worked with us or
Celia Clarke: You were in public service already, and what made you want to be county clerk?
JR: That experience of county government, in knowing all of the different ways that you have that immediate impact and the potentials of ways to continue that was really it least for myself personally, but, I know a lot of us in this area, what drives us for that.
You have a person immediately on the other side of the counter from you, and they're maybe dealing with an insurance lapse for their vehicle, or they're trying to get access to a court document. You're the ones implementing some of those policies that are made by the legislatures. Oftentimes, we get that ground level information of what those real time impacts are that may lead to suggestions for changes, but also understanding maybe, what are the other areas that we could use to help.
CC: Can you talk about your relationship to the county executive and county legislature?
County clerks are separate constitutional officers. We are in the New York State Constitution, and we are separate in that we are not just departments of county government. So you do really operate with as partners, with the legislature, with the county executive, or maybe the Board of Supervisors, but it is a very close partnership, typically, but it is one where you are independent in that the state constitution gives us a lot of responsibilities and decision making,
CC: It's better that it's an elected position versus appointed?
JR: Oh, absolutely. I think that for a service delivery agency, which is really what county clerk's offices are, in a respect, having that elected leadership make sure that those running these organizations that are providing these direct services are being very responsive to their constituents, and doing it in providing these services in the best way.
CC: Going into Election Day – anything you want people to know about county clerks and in the position in whatever county they might be in?
JR: The only thing I would add is that, you know, we hope that any voter that's voting in any cycle, make sure they look at their full ballot. We want to make sure that they understand the importance of county clerks, but all their local and municipal offices that might be on there.