Sorry to see clerk-treasurer go

After six years as Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer, Kathy Lewis is giving up her post effective Friday.

Because she was appointed in 2015, Lewis had to stand for election twice, once in 2016 and again in 2018. But unlike many newly-appointed constitutional officials, she never drew an opponent.

Lewis came to the role through a circuitous route that led through the county finance department, where she worked for Claudette Springmeyer.

While she will tell you her previous experience with elections was pretty much voting in them, she trained up quickly. With the help of an extremely experienced staff she was able to effectively navigate all three of the elections, including this most challenging 2020 election.

Lewis would tell you that any success she had on that front was all down to her staff, but there’s something to be said for her leadership.

No matter how bad things got over the last year, Lewis went out of her way to make sure people knew what happened and what was going to happen.

It was her transparency that provided The Record-Courier the ability to tell our readers how and when they would be able to vote.

There was no hemming and hawing when the county learned it would have to conduct the primary entirely by mail, just a rolling up of sleeves to get it done.

And when it became apparent that residents would be able to vote in person or by filling out the ballots they received in the mail, Lewis and her team not only made that happen, but got ballots out to residents as quickly as possible.

At the end of the day, a record 34,163 Douglas County voters cast a ballot amounting to 87.78 percent of the electorate.

That’s just a percent off Humboldt County’s 88.75 percent top turnout total.

We know it took a lot to make this year’s election work, and we know that Kathy Lewis had a lot to do with that. She leaves with our thanks as voters and citizens of Douglas County.