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As the association president, Harrison shares what she thinks about issues but always makes a point of getting input from others, Sivley said. “I think she’s done a great job for us,” she said. Harrison said she’s not aware of any bills at this point that the association would be strongly for or strongly opposed to. Tat doesn’t necessarily mean the state’s county clerks won’t be dealing with any hot-button issues this year. Te state Supreme Court will be hearing arguments on an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that the state’s ban on same-sex mar- riage is unconstitutional. During the brief time that the lower court’s ruling stood last year before the Supreme Court stayed it pending the appeal, county clerks around the state differed in how they said they would handle same-sex couples apply- ing for marriage licenses. “We’re just waiting to hear what happens with that,” Har- rison said. “We’ve not had a lot of phone calls in Polk County with people inquiring about it. If and when that decision is made, it’s something that will probably take some education and people having to get used to it.” Either way, Harrison said, she sees her role as county clerk to carry out the law, period.
“I feel like when I took my oath as county clerk I agreed to uphold the law and do what the law instructs me to do,” she said. “I don’t feel like personal beliefs can influence that. In our office we discussed that regardless of whether we’re for or
against it, if the law changes and that’s what we’re required to do, that’s what we’re going to do in our office.” In the meantime, there are plenty of other changes to keep
Harrison on her toes. When Harrison started in the Polk County Clerk’s office as an assistant in 1994, all records were kept on paper only. In the years since, the office has become gradually more reliant on computer records. Last August, they took one more step in that direction, migrating onto the state’s Context system for probate files. “None of those had ever been done electronically — they’d all
be done by hand,” she said. “We’re still learning but it seems to be working really well, and I think it will be a lot more efficient.” Still, some relics of the past remain. “We had a young man in the office the other day with his fiancée getting a marriage license,” she said. “We have a desk with a typewriter on it, and he stood there for a minute look- ing at it, and I thought, ‘I know what’s going through his mind.’ Finally he said, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘It’s a typewriter.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard of those.’” Tere’s no telling what the future holds when a mere 20
years can make a typewriter so obsolete that someone old enough to get married doesn’t know what one is. But what- ever comes, Harrison said, she wants to stick around for it. “I’ve had people tell me they think working here would be
stressful, but I just feel so blessed to be here, and that I’ve got- ten to keep this job all these years,” she said. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.”
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