The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is the

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

Circuit Court of Cook County The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois as well as one of the largest unified court systems in the United States — second only in size to the Superior Court of Los Angeles County since that court ...

, located in

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Office description

On January 1, 1964, the circuit courts of Cook County were unified. Before this, there were more than 200 separate courts in Cook County. In its unified form, it now had a single, popularly elected, clerk of court.

Pre-1964 officeholders

Notable pre-1964 officeholders included

Norman T. Gassette Norman Theodore Gassette (April 21, 1839 – March 26, 1891) was an American baseball executive and politician. He was president of the History of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Stockings for the last part of 1870 and through 1871. He also ser ...

and Jacob Gross.

Officeholders since 1964

The following individuals have held the office since the modern iteration of the Circuit Court of Cook County was established in 1964.

Recent election results

, - , colspan=16 style="text-align:center;" , Clerk of the Circuit Court general elections , - !Year !Winning candidate !Party !Vote (pct) !Opponent !Party ! Vote (pct) !Opponent !Party ! Vote (pct) !Opponent !Party ! Vote (pct) , - ,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, ,

Morgan M. Finley Morgan Martin Finley (August 31, 1925 – September 20, 2016) was an American politician and businessman. Finley was born in Chicago, Illinois. He went to De La Salle Institute and DePaul University. Finley served in the United States Navy dur ...

, , Democratic , , 1,260,257 (61.32%) , , Deborah L. Murphy , ,

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, , 794,882 (38.68%) , , , , , , , - ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, ,

Aurelia Pucinski Aurelia Marie Pucinski (born April 29, 1947) is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Her second term expires in 2030. Early life Bor ...

, , Democratic , , 1,170,558 (59.38%) , , Edward R. Vrdolyak , , Republican , , 800,783 (40.62%) , , , , , , , - ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, , Aurelia Pucinski , , Democratic , , 1,349,837 (68.39%) , , Herbert T. Schumann, Jr. , , Republican , , 486,185 (24.63%) , Text style="background:#D2B48C , Deloris "Dee" Jones , Text style="background:#D2B48C ,

Harold Washington Party The Harold Washington Party was founded in Chicago in the late 1980s to represent the interests of the city's African-American population who felt disenchanted with the mainline Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. The party was c ...

, Text style="background:#D2B48C , 137,642 (6.97%) , , , , - ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, , Aurelia Pucinski , , Democratic , , 1,149,216 (70.37%) , , Sandra M. Stavropoulos , , Republican , , 397,191 (24.32%) , Text style="background:#D2B48C , Philip Morris , Text style="background:#D2B48C , Harold Washington Party , Text style="background:#D2B48C , 64,204 (3.03%) , Janet Dennis , Justice Party , 22,581 (1.38%) , - ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, , Dorothy A. Brown , , Democratic , , 1,197,773 (72.94%) , , Nancy F. Mynard , , Republican , , 444,336 (27.06%) , , , , , , , - ,

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, , Dorothy A. Brown , , Democratic , , 1,365,285 (74.06%) , , Judith A. Kleiderman , , Republican , , 478,222 (25.94%) , , , , , , , - ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, , Dorothy A. Brown , , Democratic , , 1,315,731 (68.29%) , , Dianne S. Shapiro , , Republican , , 517,115 (26.84%) , , Paloma Andrade , ,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

, , 93,906 (4.87%) , , , , - ,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, , Dorothy A. Brown , , Democratic , , 1,291,499 (70.44%) , , Diane S. Shapiro , , Republican , , 541,973 (29.56%) , , , , , , , - ,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, , Dorothy A. Brown , , Democratic , , 1,345,696 (67.22%) , , Diane S. Shapiro , , Republican , , 656,232 (32.78%) , , , , , , , - ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, , Iris Y. Martinez , , Democratic , , 1,549,615 (73.03%) , , Barbara Bellar , , Republican , , 572,169 (26.97%) , , , , , ,

References

{{Cook County, Illinois government