Technology and accountability are key issues in the upcoming election for Clerk of the Circuit Court.

Incumbent Democrat Dorothy Brown is running for her third term against two candidates looking to shake things up in the office.

Republican candidate Diane Shapiro says she is running because of problems with the office's computer equipment, which she claims is antiquated. Green Party candidate Paloma Andrade says she wants to rid the office of its reputation for lost files. 

The clerk serves as the official keeper of records for all judicial matters brought into one of the largest unified court systems in the world. The offiice is responsible for managing an annual operating budget of more than $100 million and more than 2,100 employees. 

Shapiro is a probation officer at the Cook County Criminal Courts building. Through her job, Shapiro has become familiar with what she characterizes as an "archaic" system, she says.

Shapiro says she "actually becomes embarrassed" when telling colleagues in other counties that Cook case files are not online.

A former Democrat, Shapiro wants the county's system to be integrated with the rest of country to improve accessibility to records. She says the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Dupage County, Chris Kachiroubas, has offered assistance in implementing such technology, but Brown has resisted.

Brown was elected in 2000 and is the first African American to head the Clerk's Office.

She says Shapiro's complaint comes from "a lack of understanding" of the technology involved in integration.

Since 2000, Brown has been integrating the circuit court's computer system with the rest of Cook County, the state police and the secretary of state.

Brown, who is also chairman of both the Cook County Integrated Justice Committee and the Outreach Committee of the Illinois Integrated Justice Information Systems, says the speed of data integration is determined by the need for accuracy. 

All integration goes through the secretary of state's office to prevent discrepancies that would result from a decentralized system.

Brown is a native of Minden, La., and graduated magna cum laude from Southern University in Louisiana. She received a master’s in business administration with honors from DePaul University and a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law. She is she is also a certified public accountant. 

Shapiro, a lifelong Chicago resident, is undaunted by Brown's incumbency. She also is critical of what she considers a lax dress code that allows employees to "pay to go casual as long as they have their smock on."

However, Brown says, "there's no harm in it." She said that employees that participate pay $2 to a fund that rewards the office's employee of the year.

Shapiro is the elected 46th Ward GOP committeewoman, president of the International Police Association, Region 4 and a professor at Triton College.

She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Northwestern University and a master's degree in communications/theater from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Andrade, the Green party candidate, says she wants to rid the office of its reputation for lost files. Andrade says that she will keep track of files by scanning them and creating a culture in the office that encourages employees to "treat the papers as money."

Andrade, a Robert Morris College graduate and trained accountant, says that "you have to come out even" when keeping books, and files would treated the same.

Her political career began with her unsuccessful campaign against long-time Alderman Ed Burke, D-14, in 2007.

She says she endured significant harassment from the Democratic machine during the race in the form of threats and a lawsuit that prevented her from campaigning until three days before the election. 

Brown says that ongoing digitization has reduced the number of files lost.