Who to See: City Clerk or County Registrar?
In most states, the county registrar is the one who maintains the voter registration records and election information for national, state, county, and sometimes local races. In most cities, it’s the city clerk.
They both can keep records of who registered to vote, who showed up to vote, draw and provide precinct maps, and administer and run elections. Sometimes these duties overlap. Like a city council race may be run by the city but the county will provide the registration rolls on who can vote. Also, the city will probably keep the information on who actually showed up to vote and not provide the election results to the county.
The reason why I’m telling you all this is because when you start to campaign you’ll need to have an idea on where to go to get some of your information.
At most county offices you can purchase for a very nominal fee a list of all registered voters in the district where you’re running. It will show the name, address, precinct, phone (if available), party and sometimes age. Sometimes these list will have less information, sometimes more. If you’re lucky, the list may even provide voting history (what elections that voter showed up to) by each persons name. But this is rare. In reality, you probably purchase all your list, labels for mailing, and get voter demographic counts from a political list vendor. The reason for this will be explained in chapter 6.
But for election results research and for precinct maps, the county registrar or city clerk is the place to go. Of course, it’s also the place to file for your race. They’ll give you a packet with all the information you’ll need to file. Including campaign contribution rules and how to get you state I.D. number (if needed for your state).
Be extremely friendly to the bureaucrat behind the counter. Because there will be a time when you need some special information that only this person knows how to retrieve. Each of these offices is there own little kingdoms with there own rules. So keep smiling. But, if there is information you need and they’re not going that extra bureaucratic mile for you then you need to be firm and keep asking why. Remember, I think these people are paid by our taxes.
© 2007 Croshaw Printing and Direct Mail
