Sears to Retire as Randolph County Clerk

By Janet Morales

After helping others file for political office for nearly 16 years, Jim Sears has decided not to throw his own hat in the ring again this year as county clerk and will retire at the end of his fourth term in December.

Sears said he and wife Cathy don’t plan to winter in the south or take a trip around the world but they would like to do some things they enjoy without worrying about schedule conflicts.

That first race 16 years ago almost didn’t place Sears in the clerk’s seat.

Dottie Wilson, the incumbent, was retiring, leaving the job open to a newcomer. Sears and Joan Joseph, a deputy clerk at the time, both filed for the seat.

“I called Dorothy Hedges, who was our neighbor and good family friend, and asked her what she thought (about Sears running for the office). She said she thought it was a good idea and she took over as campaign manager. I couldn’t have won without Dorothy’s help.”

It was a very close race. People in his fairly large neighborhood precinct got out and voted for him giving him an early lead. He was feeling pretty happy.

“Then my lead started dwindling,” said Sears. “It was down to two precincts, Cairo and South Sugar Creek and Joan’s from Cairo. With only one precinct left, I was two votes behind. I wasn’t sure where South Sugar Creek was or who lived there. But I won that precinct by 19 votes and the election by 17.”

There was no call for a recount and Joseph remained as deputy clerk.

“She worked for me from day one,” Sears said. “She has been invaluable in the office.”

These days Joseph is physically in the deputy clerk’s office but her position is now with 911.

The duties and responsibilities of a county clerk are varied. The clerk is responsible for paying the bills, keeping the county commission records, human resource duties such as keeping the payroll, insurance and taxes, the sale of liquor, notary and auction licenses and budgeting. Sears said his office sends worksheets out to the various offices to be completed and he puts the budget in a final format to be sent to the auditor’s office. Business and accounting backgrounds are a help for anyone considering the position, he said, but it is a learn-as-you-go position.

“You don’t know anything when you walk in the door,” Sears said.

And then there’s the elections.

Sears said there are five dates set aside each year for elections. Smaller special elections are sometimes held in February or June although those months don’t see elections every year. April is host for the municipal elections, such as school board and city councils. Primary elections are held in August with general elections in November.

The election process has changed a lot since Sears first took over the reins as clerk. The county had been comprised of 27 precincts but he consolidated those into the existing 14. That made administration of the election process easier. Election judges were paid $30 when he first became clerk and by law there has to be at least four judges in each precinct with more desired to provide breaks, pay for judges is now $120 for the long day they put in plus $25 for training.

Some of the more visible changes for voters is the upgrade in technological election aids.

“The 2000 election in Florida changed elections completely,” said Sears.

The Help America Vote Act was passed. Punch card ballots were eliminated and optical scanners which read the marked ballots electronically took their place. Each polling place is required to have at least one touch screen for individuals with disabilities to use.

The touch screen walks you through the voting process, said Sears. It shows you your choices on the screen and can read it to the visually impaired.

Sears said the touch screens are costly to program so they are used only in federal elections. The touch screens are in all 14 precincts but according to Sears, only 20-30 persons voted on them in the whole county during the presidential election.

Another change is having youth from area high schools help at the polling places. They have been especially helpful when it comes to using the new technology.

“We first used the touch screens in August 2002,” said Sears. “I rounded up bout eight to 10 kids and trained them on the touch screens. We had a student from Sturgeon help in Clark, one in Higbee helped at the polls there. They were in the filed making sure people knew how to use the machines. They really picked up on it.”

Sears said students work in a variety of capacities during election time and he goes into the schools to train them before the election. Sears said there were about 50 students working during the presidential election.

“It’s a win situation for the students,” said Sears. “They are involved with the election process and it is a great community service project to put on scholarship applications.”`

Sears said the county has a tech support team also made up of six to eight individuals, mainly retired school teachers, who have been trained on the technology part of the election. Each tech person is assigned to one to two precincts and they are the ones who are called if there is a problem.

“They float throughout the day,” said Sears. “If a precinct is having equipment problems someone is close by to take care of it for them. If it was just me I would be meeting myself coming. But they work real good together and they have been very helpful.”

The central data base has been a big change and a tremendous help in keeping track of voters as well, said Sears.

Determining where a person should vote was often dependent on the information the voter provided at the polls, Sears said. Also country addresses were sometimes hard to pinpoint and unvariably a property in question would be on the line. But the central data base and 911 pinpointing addresses has helped alleviate most of those problems. As soon as somebody registers in another county they are off the rolls in this county.

One example is that of the college student. Sears said parents come in to get absentee ballots for their college children only to find the students have changed their registration. Often the parents didn’t know there had been a change but the information is recorded in the central database so there is no duplication.

Absentee ballots are available for those who are confined to their homes or will not be home on election day. A person wishing to vote must have a reason to vote absentee besides wanting to vote early.

“We have some people who are on a permanent list,” said Sears. “We send them an application before every election. They sign it and we send them an absentee ballot. It’s available to anyone who’s going to be out of town or is incapacitated and can’t get out.”

Those who are confined will likely be the only ones making use of absentee voting in the future as the concept of early voting is being proposed. Early voting would allow anyone to vote as early as one to two weeks before the election. The concept is already being tried in Kansas, according to Sears.

“The theory is it takes a lot of voters out of the equation on election day,” said Sears. “About 30 to 40 percent have already voted by election day relieving the burden on election day.”

But Sears said for a small county like Randolph, it will be an administrative nightmare.

“We’ll have to set up a voting poll,” said Sears. “We’ll have to keep track of 16,000 voters. We’ll have to secure ballots for two weeks.”

It will be economically difficult, too. A poll will have to be set up for anyone who might want to vote. Sears said there would have to be at least one in Moberly, a place that is more centrally locally than the courthouse in Huntsville. And each polling place will have to have at least four election judges each day, at $120 per day.

“The county clerks are saying we’re fine with early voting,” said Sears. “It will be a headache but we can do it. What we have a problem with is having the county pay for it. If the state wants to pay for it we’re fine with it.”

Sears said the state doesn’t pay a penny for the primary or general elections, creating a hardship on the already strained county budget.

“I’ve budgeted $70,000 for elections this year,” said Sears. “That’s what it costs taxpayers of Randolph County.”

For the next clerk, Sears said they will have to pick out what they want to do and get it done themselves. There is no more space for additional staff .

“This is a good job, a fun job with great people,” Sears said. “I have been blessed with good help. It’s the people I’ll miss. But I don’t want to serve so long that I’m not comfortable with my efficiency. I don’t want it just for a paycheck.”

Sears’ last official act will be 10 a.m. Thursday as he gives the oath of office to his replacement Will Ellis. The public is invited to attend.

This story was first published in the online version of the Moberly Mirror March 3, 2010

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