How DuPage County recorder candidates would improve outreach

A longtime DuPage Democrat who has previously called for letting voters decide the future of the county’s recorder of deeds office is now hoping to lead it.

Liz Chaplin, a county board member since 2012, is running to replace incumbent Recorder Kathleen Carrier, who lost in the Democratic primary. Chaplin’s opponent in next month’s election is Republican Nicole Prater, the Winfield Township supervisor.

Chaplin says the recorder’s office — the steward of county real estate records — has been stagnant “for too long.” The Downers Grove Democrat said she would hire a community outreach director and proposed bringing a property fraud alert system in-house as a cost-saving move.

“There’s a lot of services that the recorder’s office offers, but with no community outreach and no social media, our community doesn’t know about the great services in the recorder’s office,” Chaplin said in a recent endorsement interview with the Daily Herald.

At a League of Women Voters forum, Prater said she would hold town halls and get together with countrywide officials to educate the public about recorder programs. She also has said the office “can do a lot more” with those for veterans. They can receive discounts from businesses through “Honor Rewards.”

“I can understand what they’re going through all the way because I am one,” Prater, who served in the U.S. Air Force, said at the forum.

The race comes about five years after Chaplin wanted to put a question on the ballot asking voters whether the recorder’s duties should be merged with the county clerk’s office.

“I think that’s something we have to evaluate when we would get into that office to see if it’s something that can be combined with the clerk, or maybe it is better off separate,” Chaplin said.

Chaplin noted in an email that 87 of the 102 counties in Illinois, including Cook County, the largest in the state, have already merged the recorder’s office with the clerk’s office.

At this point, she doesn’t believe it’s the will of the county board to place a referendum question on the ballot. However, if the board decided to put the question to voters, she would not object.

Asked to weigh in on the merger idea, Prater said voters should make the decision, though she also had some caveats.

“Ultimately, I believe what should happen is, if it does merge, it should be the clerk and the recorder’s office together, and the election commission should be its … own entity in itself,” Prater said, “where you should have two directors, one Republican and one Democrat, running that office.”

Prater said the election commission “shouldn’t be run by one party, either way.”

County board members in 2019 transferred the functions of the election commission to the clerk’s office.

“DuPage County previously had a stand-alone election commission, which was mired in controversy,” Chaplin wrote in her email in part. “In a nonbinding referendum question, DuPage County voters overwhelmingly supported eliminating the election commission and transferring election oversight to the elected county clerk.

“Removing elections from the oversight of elected clerks in favor of a commission or nonelected body reduces accountability, transparency, and possibly local control.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241025/news/how-dupage-county-recorder-candidates-would-improve-outreach/