Post: | Cook County Clerk |
Insigniasize: | 150px |
Incumbent: | Vacant |
Incumbentsince: | April 7, 2024 |
Termlength: | 4 years |
Formation: | March 1831 (appointed position) August 1837 (elected position) |
The Cook County Clerk is the clerk of county government in Cook County, Illinois.
The office of Cook County Clerk was established as an elected office with a four-year term in August 1837. Prior to this, from 1831 to 1837, the Clerk was appointed by the three Cook County Commissioners.
Clerk | Term in office | Party | Notes | Cite | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
George Davis | 1837 - 1849 | First elected Cook County Clerk | [1] | |||
Edmund S. Kimberly | 1849 - 1853 | |||||
Charles B. Farwell | 1853 - 1861 | |||||
Laurin P. Hilliard | 1861 - 1865 | |||||
Edward S. Salomon | 1865–November 1869 | Republican | [2] [3] | |||
John G. Gindele | 1869 - January 1872 | Died in office | ||||
George W. Wheeler | 1873 - December 1873 | |||||
Hermann Lieb | 1873 - December 1877 | |||||
Ernest F.C. Klokke | 1877 - December 1882 | Term extended, by law, for one year | ||||
Michael W. Ryan | 1882 - December 1886 | |||||
Henry Wulff | 1886 - 1894 | Republican | ||||
Philip Knopf | 1894 - 1902 | Republican | ||||
Peter B. Olsen | 1902 - 1906 | Republican | ||||
Joseph F. Haas | 1906 - 1910 | Republican | [4] | |||
Robert Sweitzer | December 1910–December 1934 | Democratic | Elected in 1910, 1914, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934; resigned to serve as Cook County Treasurer in December 1934 | |||
Michael J. Flynn | 1935–1950 | Democratic | Appointed in 1935; elected in 1938, 1942, 1946 | |||
Richard J. Daley | December 1950 – 1955 | Democratic | Elected in 1950 and 1954; resigned in 1955 to serve as mayor of Chicago | |||
Edward J. Barrett | 1955–1973 | Democratic | Appointed in 1955; elected in 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970; resigned in 1973 | |||
Stanley Kusper | 1973–December 1990 | Democratic | Appointed in 1973, elected in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986 | [5] | ||
David Orr | December 1990–December 2018 | Democratic | Elected in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 | |||
Karen Yarbrough | December 2018–April 2024 | Democratic | Elected in 2018 and 2022; died in office in April 2024 | [6] |
|-| colspan=16 style="text-align:center;" |Cook County Clerk general elections|-!Year!Winning candidate!Party!Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)|-|1986[7] | | Stanley Kusper| | Democratic| | 929,949 (68.35%)| | Diana Nelson| | Republican| | 430,568 (31.35%)| | | | | | |-|1990[8] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 799,884 (63.48%)| | Sam Panayotovich| | Republican| | 353,531 (28.06%)|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Heldia R. Richardson|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Harold Washington Party|Text style="background:#D2B48C | 106,588 (8.46%)| | | |-|1994| | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | | | Edward Howlett| | Republican| | |Text style="background:#D2B48C | Herman W. Baker, Jr.|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Harold Washington Party|Text style="background:#D2B48C | | Curtis Jones| Populist| |-|1998[9] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 988,136 (77.30%)| | Judie A. Jones| | Republican| | 290,256 (22.70%)| | | | | | |-|2002[10] [11] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 992,441 (76.11%)| | Kathleen A. Thomas| | Republican| | 311,552 (23.89%)| | | | | | |-|2006[12] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 1,034,263 (80.78%)| | Nancy Carlson| | Republican| | 246,044 (19.22%)| | | | | | |-|2010[13] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 1,047,462 (77.77%)| | Angel Garcia| | Republican| | 299,449 (22.23%)| | || | | |-|2014[14] | | David D. Orr| | Democratic| | 1,061,515 (100%)| | | | | | | | | |-|2018[15] | | Karen Yarbrough| | Democratic| | 1,415,244 (99.07%)| Others| Write-ins| 13,120 (0.93%)| | | | | | |-|2022[16] | |Karen Yarbrough| | Democratic| |1,003,854 (71.58%)| | Tony Peraica| | Republican| |368,095 (26.26%)| | Joseph Schreiner| | Libertarian| |30,514 (2.18%)| | |