Why are county clerks elected?

Politics & Elections
1

Most of the recent fiasco regarding the county clerk in Kentucky who’s refusing to comply with court orders to issue marriage licenses has focused on the immediate questions - will she resign, will she be held in contempt, will she be impeached. Since she’s an elected official, she can’t simply be fired for not performing her duties. My question is at the root of this. Why are county clerks and similar positions subject to an election in the first place?

I’m sure there’s more to the job than I realize, but as far as I can tell, the duties are mainly to certify and record documents. There’s not much in the way of real policy decisions. I’ve always voted for whoever seems to be the most competent administrator, and I doubt that most voters outside the legal profession have much skin in this game either.

So why can’t a civil servant do this stuff? A hired county employee who can be held accountable in the near term for not doing their job. Of course there are barriers to accountability on civil servants, too, but at least it doesn’t take an act of Congress (okay, the state legislature) to remove them in such a blatant case.

2

Appointed clerks can be just as much of a problem. The law may make it impossible to fire them even in these circumstances. That person could end up with the position for life instead of being voted out in short order. County clerks have a lot of power, they can ruin a construction project by waiting to record papers, or even losing them. A long time appointed clerk often knows where a lot of skeletons are buried and politicians may be afraid to take action against them. At least an elected clerk has to run for office periodically. There always trade-offs between elected and appointed officials. Sometimes corruption from one mode results in a legislature changing the rules such as appointing previously elected officials. In time they find out the situation is still not ideal, just different.

3

During the Progressive Era in the US, one of the reforms that was pushed was to make a lot of state and local offices elected, as opposed to appointed, in order to reduce corruption and cronyism.

But, I’m not really sure about county clerks, per-se. For some reason, I’m thinking that the notion of elected county clerks dates from before the Progressive Era, but I’d have to go do some research to figure it out. Perhaps a more knowledgeable Doper can oblige.

4

That makes sense. And at least the voters in her county will have the chance, eventually, to remove her if the KY legislature doesn’t. That is assuming, of course, that the majority sees fit to vote out the bad-press machine rather than supporting her actions.

It makes me wonder if that’s the next phase - if more clerk candidates will campaign on the promise to flout the law as Davis has. It would probably work in some places.

5

In Kentucky, many places elect coroners.

6

The specific history of any given office will vary, of course, by state. But in general you’re correct, the American fetish for elected officers dates back even before the Progressive Era, to the Jacksonian Era.

Back then, before fantasy football and reality TV, elections were a cheap form of entertainment. There weren’t that many people on the public payroll, and the feeling was that those who were should have to get out and pound the flesh, and by God, maybe even hold a rally and set up a tent with free booze! Counties elected ass-loads of offices that would be appointed positions anywhere else in the world–auditors, coroners, clerks, court clerks, judges, recorders of deeds. And many counties still do.

7

Dogcatcher.

8

My thought as I read down. I’ve never seen an elected dogcatcher position but I understand they do exist.

Exactly what is the candidate’s platform for such a race?

9

“I can catch dogs.”

10

There was another era following WWII that changed the scope of many municipalities. Things varied by state and the situation. Counties sometimes lost some of their status as many towns incorporated and formed local governments. There changes from elected officials to appointed, and vice versa depending on what was working or not working before. As usual there’s no general rule to apply since we have this marvelous system of 50 different controlling authorities over the numerous county, town, and city governments.

11

I was surprised rather late in life by how much this can vary from state to state. In California, counties are immensely powerful entities that control life for a good part of the population in unincorporated areas. Maybe 20 years back, there was a huge move for towns to incorporate and carve off political influence (and a tax base or two) to improve local life at the expense of the county overall. Some of these experiments worked, some didn’t.

In Connecticut, counties were effectively abolished in the mid-1960s and the state carved up into “towns” that filled all the former space in between. Each “town” might have dozens of what-useta-be towns within it. Counties are merely lines on a map now.

12

So far here in your neighboring state I haven’t found any trace of county government. Our towns and cities have a great deal of home rule, and the state government is a well known joke. On top of that we also have the fictional South County (actually Washington County), which should indicate the low status of counties here.

13

I can’t answer the OP’s question about why a lot of two-bit offices are filled by election rather than appointment, but my take on it is simple: (a) elected positions should be positions where the ‘skill’ requirements don’t go beyond reasonable intelligence, good judgment, and decent leadership and communication skills, and (b) there shouldn’t be more such positions than most voters are going to maintain an interest in.

Hopefully the logic behind (b) is obvious. If you’ve got to vote on 23 different offices at the county level, what are the chances that a random voter has any idea how to decide between the candidates in most of the cases, let alone has an informed opinion on which candidate is better?

And with respect to (a), if you need specific skills for a particular position beyond just being a decent person that the voters like, you shouldn’t be able to get that job just by getting a bunch of people to vote for you.

In my county, here’s what we voted on in 2014:

Two at-large county commissioners
One county commissioner representing our district within the county
County treasurer
(County-level) state’s attorney
Register of wills
Two judges of the circuit court
Three judges of the orphans’ court
Sheriff
Two at-large members of the board of education

I can understand the logic of voting for county commissioners and the board of ed. These are the generalists that you’re choosing on the basis of their good judgment and general governing philosophy, so that they can make good decisions for the county so that you don’t have to.

But they should pick the people to do the nuts-and-bolts of governing, on the basis of appropriate qualifications. I have no idea whether the country treasurer or the sheriff or the register of wills or the judge of the orphan’s court is doing a good job or a crappy job. And with the possible exception of the sheriff, I’d find it hard to believe that most voters in the county have a much better idea than I do.

I should vote for a person or a board who would appoint people to these offices, so that people like me don’t have to decide, on the basis of next to nothing, who should fill them.

14

Why are county clerks elected?

As a protection against graft, mainly.

Think about it. The county clerk is the main paperwork bureaucrat. Processing documents, receiving bids, making sure the checks get sent out, etc. In some places the “clerk” also supervises the bookkeeping functions. An unscrupulous clerk can get away with a lot of shennanigans.

Sure, an appointed clerk could be fired, which is what happened a LOT in the patronage era. A county-level civil servant could appeal being fired to the county board, but they’re the ones responsible for hiring in the first place. You can easily argue that the best protection for both the clerk and the taxpayers is to directly elect the clerk.

15

So does Maaaas have counties, or not?

I do find it exasperating that whole administrative boards have to be elected every few miles here. Most towns can’t find enough qualified (or at least quality) candidates for most posts, which are often backbreaking, critical to the lives in the town and mostly unpaid. I mean, yay freedom and local government and all… but it makes for rather indifferent town councils, boards of ed, erratic planning & zoning etc. If any place needed more consolidated government of counties, it’s this one.

16

They have a Suffolk County Jail and Sheriffs. I don’t know much more about it.

ETA: I’m not in that neighboring state. I’m in the little one you may not notice on the way to the Cape.

17

Oh. I guess that one’s not big enough for counties.

It is a huge PITA to get to from here, though. :slight_smile:

18

Massachusetts no longer has county governments. The jails, and the sheriffs’ departments who run them and execute warrants, are now state operations.

19

I know that for Los Angeles county, the county clerk is not elected. He’s appointed by the Board of Supervisors, 5 people who are elected.