Carson City Clerk and recorder Alan Glover stands near his office in the Public Safety Building Thursday morning. He is running for re-election. photo by Rick Gunn.
Scattered around Carson City Clerk Recorder Alan Glover's office are signs of elected offices past.
Senator Glover. Assemblyman Glover. Since his early 20s, Glover, now 52, has held state and local offices. He doesn't intend to quit, announcing this week his intent to seek his third consecutive term as clerk-recorder
"It's a sickness," he joked. "I worked on Kennedy's campaign at age 11. My mother was the state deputy treasurer. My grandfather was always in politics. I always liked it."
Fresh from directing the capital's reapportionment, Glover is looking toward an election year in which he will not only be on the ballot but also will direct the election. He hasn't heard of anyone else interested in the job, which pays him $61,632, and in 1998 he ran unopposed for the first time in his political career.
"I know an awful lot about elections and records management," he said. "These are fields that take a lot of work to get up to speed on. It's not something you can learn overnight, and it's not something you can learn by reading statutes."
A former insurance agent, Glover has been in the Carson City clerk-recorder's office off and on since 1985. He represented Carson City in the Nevada Assembly from 1973 through 1983 and in the Senate from 1983-1985.
He abdicated his office as state senator when he was appointed recorder in 1985. He was elected to the position the following year. In "one of my more brilliant moves," he lost a bid for secretary of state in 1990. He returned to the recorder's office, eventually becoming chief elections deputy and ran again for the job in 1994.
When he started in 1985, all city documents were recorded in huge, leather-bound books.
"My handwriting wasn't as pretty as those in years past," he said.
He led the office then into the automated age and into the era of microfilm and microfiche. On the horizon now is a continuing goal to further bring the office and its records into the digital age. His staff is working to scan documents into digital format that will soon join other available records -- from property liens to marriage certificates -- on the Internet.
Pushing automation, Glover will ask city supervisors this week to look at a new, touch-screen voting system that would push Carson's voting into the 21st century and will feature language options and options to help the blind and deaf. The $600,000 system isn't funded, but the city and other local communities may get help from the federal government to help eliminate repeats of Florida's 1999 hanging chad nightmare.
Glover is responsible for six areas of city government including elections, marriage licenses -- "I'm not allowed to type them, I screw them up" -- court clerks, records management, recording secretaries, the recorder's office and public administration.
The recorder's office records liens on property, deeds of trust, keeps track of all transactions involving real property and records marriages. Public administration oversees guardianships and estates of elderly people without family to care for them. Total, he is responsible for the administration of $2 million annually.
A father of three daughters, he has been married to Harle for 20 years. He is involved in multiple volunteer organizations, and has plenty of "you're a nice guy" paperweights on his desk to prove it. While he has cut back on his volunteer activities, he is a member of the Carson City Rotary Club, the Knights of Columbus and the University of Nevada Alumni Club.
"That's what makes a community -- when people get involved," he said. "Carson has a sense of community. It's a nice place to live, a nice place to raise kids."
