The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is the clerk of Circuit Court of Cook County, located in Cook County, Illinois. The office plays a critical role in maintaining court records and facilitating judicial operations for the nation's largest unified court system, handling millions of cases annually.
The office was first established in 1831, the year that Cook County was created. In 1848, the office of Cook County recorder was merged into the office of clerk of the Circuit Court. The office was accordingly renamed as "clerk and recorder". For decades thereafter, the office served not only as the Circuit Court's clerk, but also served as the ex-officio county recorder of deeds. This ended in 1872, when the county's recorder of deeds was again created as a separate office.
On January 1, 1964, the more than 200 courts of Cook County were unified. Replacing the separate clerks that existed for different courts was a single popularly elected clerk of courts for newly merged Circuit Court of Cook County.
The following individuals have held the office since the modern iteration of the Circuit Court of Cook County was established in 1964.
|- | 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 | | Morgan M. Finley | | Democratic | | 1,260,257 (61.32%) | | Deborah L. Murphy | | Republican | | 794,882 (38.68%) | | | | | | |- |1988 | | Aurelia Pucinski | | Democratic | | 1,170,558 (59.38%) | | Edward R. Vrdolyak | | Republican | | 800,783 (40.62%) | | | | | | |- |1992 | | 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 |Text style="background:#D2B48C | 137,642 (6.97%) | | | |- |1996 | | 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 | | Dorothy A. Brown | | Democratic | | 1,197,773 (72.94%) | | Nancy F. Mynard | | Republican | | 444,336 (27.06%) | | | | | | |- |2004 | | Dorothy A. Brown | | Democratic | | 1,365,285 (74.06%) | | Judith A. Kleiderman | | Republican | | 478,222 (25.94%) | | | | | | |- |2008 | | Dorothy A. Brown | | Democratic | | 1,315,731 (68.29%) | | Dianne S. Shapiro | | Republican | | 517,115 (26.84%) | | Paloma Andrade | | Green | | 93,906 (4.87%) | | | |- |2012 | | Dorothy A. Brown | | Democratic | | 1,291,499 (70.44%) | | Diane S. Shapiro | | Republican | | 541,973 (29.56%) | | | | | | |- |2016 | | Dorothy A. Brown | | Democratic | | 1,345,696 (67.22%) | | Diane S. Shapiro | | Republican | | 656,232 (32.78%) | | | | | | |- |2020 | | Iris Y. Martinez | | Democratic | | 1,549,615 (73.03%) | | Barbara Bellar | | Republican | | 572,169 (26.97%) | | | | | | |- |2024 | | Mariyana Spyropoulos | | Democratic | | | | Lupe Aguirre | | Republican | | | | Michael Murphy | | Libertarian | | | | |