Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon.

Okay, ready.

Good afternoon, Chairman Daly and members of the Finance Committee who are also my former colleagues.

It's great to be here with all of you today, and I thank you for your continued commitment to our county government.

I am excited to share the progress we have made to strengthen the Cook County Clerk's Office and deliver better service to the residents who rely on us every day.

Over the past year, we have continued to modernize our operations, invest in technology, expand access to our services, and work to build greater public confidence in our agency.

Whether administering secure and accessible elections, preserving vital public records, supporting veterans, or helping residents with property tax matters, our focus remains on delivering efficient and responsive services.

While important work remains ahead, our mid-year budget reflects a strong financial position and demonstrates that we are well prepared to continue moving this office forward with a fiscally responsible approach.

The administration of secure, accessible, and transparent elections remain at the heart of our mission.

And I am proud to report several significant advancements in election innovation and infrastructure.

First and foremost, and thanks to your continued support, we fulfilled our commitment to deploy smart ballot drop boxes at all 55 early voting locations throughout suburban Cook County for the March Gubernatorial Primary Election.

Equipped with built-in surveillance cameras and advanced ballot tracking technology, these devices strengthen ballot security, improve chain of custody monitoring, and provide voters with greater transparency throughout the voting process.

We also achieved another major milestone with the launch of Election Lens, a first of its kind real-time election analytics prep platform delivered in partnership with No Inc., our trusted election technology provider.

Election Lens provides live insight into voter turnout, ballot activity, and polling place operations, allowing our election team to identify emerging needs and respond quickly.

We have another headline coming out of our elections department, and this one involves the monsters of the midway, our beloved Chicago Bears.

I am thrilled to report that our new high school early voting program has exceeded all expectations.

We didn't just score a touchdown, we scored a touchdown and spike the ball.

This past election, we partnered with the Chicago Bears in 24 suburban high schools to bring early voting directly to students.

More than 125 students were trained to serve as election judges.

And in a single day, more than 1,100 students cast their ballots through this innovative program.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

For many students, this was their very first opportunity to vote.

Inside the same school where they are spent they had spent years learning about history and civics.

They didn't just learn about democracy in a classroom.

They experienced it firsthand by voting and serving their classmates as election judges.

Those are lessons that can inspire a lifetime of civic engagement.

The Chicago Bears have been outstanding partners.

Their executives met with students to discuss discuss civic engagement.

Players recorded videos encouraging first-time voters, and together we created an experience that made partnership meaningful and memorable.

The success of this program has earned national recognition.

While we are grateful for these national honors, the greatest reward is seeing young people discover that their voices matter and that they can help shape the future of their communities.

I hope all of you will consider visiting a school in your district when we conduct the program in the November election.

Now, our vital records, recording operations, and real estate and tax departments are not only our largest customer-facing departments, they are also the primary drivers of revenue for the clerk's office.

As you can see in the mid-year budget review, actual revenue has exceeded budget projections by 4%.

This growth has been driven primarily by increased demand for real ID related documents and vital records needed for school enrollment.

To meet that demand, while continuing to strive for excellent service, we have remained focused on modernizing our systems and technology.

One of our most exciting initiatives is the development of AI-assisted tools that can read handwritten and type request forms, helping automate portions of the document intake process.

These enhancements will accelerate processing for both in-person and mail requests, reduce manual data entry, and shorten processing times.

We are targeting implementation during the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.

In our vital records department, I am pleased to report that we have begun using the Clerk Cashiering System, a cashier and mail tracking platform that was successfully introduced in our recording operations department last year, formerly consider called the Clerk Recording System.

As the system continues to roll out, Vital Records customers will soon be able to track the status of their mail requests online by simply entering their last name or address through our website, providing greater transparency and improved customer service.

What makes this achievement especially noteworthy is that the system was designed and developed entirely in-house by our talented information technology team.

By leveraging the expertise of our own staff, we avoided millions of dollars in outside development costs while creating a solution tailored to the unique needs of our office.

This innovation was also recognized nationally with the NACO Achievement Award last year.

Looking ahead, once the Tyler Technologies implementation is complete, we plan to integrate the system into our real estate and tax services department to further improve processing speed and customer service.

As for the Tyler Technologist Technologies Project, responsibility for managing the clerk's office portion of the implementation is transitioning from the Bureau of Technology to our internal team.

We are engaging a dedicated project manager and reallocating resource to resources to ensure the project remains on schedule and meets our operational goal.

We would keep will continue to keep this board informed of our progress throughout implementation.

And I'll just say this now.

I mean, of course, we have three weeks to do our part.

We have already completed and sent it to the municipality, so we'll just wait for that, and then we'll be able to pass the baton by July 31st.

Our real estate and tax services department has also made significant process with the launch of a secure online portal that enables tax buyers to electronically file take notices.

The application provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution by allowing users to upload data, generate mail merge notices that comply with state law, and receive electronically stamped and indexed documents that are securely stored online.

Following the next property tax sale, we look forward to reporting measurable results that demonstrate how this new system is approving efficiency and streamlining operations.

Community outreach has also remained a major priority.

Through our popular property after death program and many other community events, we have already served more than 6,000 residents this year while averaging eight outreach events per month.

Our veteran services division continues to connect veterans and their families with benefits and resources.

We have also initiated partnerships with the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Wolves to provide discounted ticket offers to the veterans who are enrolled in our discount card program.

We remain on track to reach 14,000 residents next year through direct engagement, webinars, and continuing education initiatives.

Before I conclude, I want to recognize the dedicated employees of the Cook County Clerk's Office.