County Clerk

The County Clerk and Recorder’s Office has five major functions:

(1) Clerk of the County Board and Keeper of the County Records,
(2) Chief Election Officer for Ogle County,
(3) Keeper of Vital Records (Births, Civil Unions, Marriages and Deaths),
(4) Computation of Property Taxes and Redemption of Delinquent Taxes,
(5) Record and maintain all Land Transactions for Ogle County.

By law, the County Clerk also files assumed names for businesses, issues civil union and marriage licenses and files Statement of Economic Interest.

The County Clerk maintains records and issues certificates of vital records (birth certificates, civil union certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates) for Ogle County.

The County Clerk issues recreation licenses, liquor licenses and video gaming licenses for unincorporated areas of Ogle County.

The County Clerk’s office provides for the legal registration of voters and the maintenance of the voting record.

The County Clerk supervises and provides training for election judges and is responsible for monitoring and supervising all deputy voting registrars, including training seminars.

The County Clerk administers elections of national, state and county officials within Ogle County. There are 51 precincts with approximately 34,000 registered voters under the jurisdiction of the County Clerk. The Clerk also administers all elections for schools, parks, townships, and other special districts under her jurisdiction. The County Clerk computes the tax rates of the various units of government based on the amount of assessed value within the district. Taxes are set by dividing the levy (taxes requested by district) by the assessed valuation (rate = levy/assessed value.) From these rates, individual tax bills are prepared.

The County Clerk keeps an accurate record of all proceedings of the County Board meetings by preparing and filing all minutes. The Clerk also files all documents brought before the Board and acted on, maintains a current listing of all liaison committee appointments and files minutes of Committee meetings.

The County Clerk prepares all claims and reports from each county office to be approved by the County Board.

The County Clerk pays all county bills from the General Fund as approved by the County Board.

The County Clerk maintains oaths of office and maintains bonds of elected and appointed officials of Ogle County.

The Recorder’s office maintains the index and records of all property transactions. All real estate documents, corporation papers, city and village ordinances and other miscellaneous documents, together with all servicemen/women’s separation and discharge papers, are recorded. The original document is returned to the individual presenting it for recording.

Mechanics’ liens and notices of tax liens, both federal and state, are filed, and the original is retained in a permanent file in the office. Financing statements, indicating liens on chattel property and termination statements thereof, are also filed.

Each document is assigned an official document number at the time it is presented for record and indexed for quick reference for record retrieval.

The Illinois Real Estate Transfer Act is administered through the Recorder’s office. 

In Ogle County, the Recorder also maintains a Book and Page Index of real estate transactions, which indicates the title to the property and any mortgages or liens against it. The chain of title may be traced back to 1837 and the original government grant in these indexes.