(Stillwater) – The close of the filing period for political offices on Wednesday was a relief for Payne County Court Clerk Lisa Lambert, who was re-elected to another 4 year term when she drew no opponent. Lambert was the only County Official up for election who did not draw an opponent for either a primary or the general election.
Lambert was first elected in 1992, and begins her fifth term as Court Clerk. All of her service has been under District Judge Donald Worthington.
Lambert told KUSH that she has seen many significant changes during her tenure. When she was first elected in 1992, court records were entered by hand into books. Court data is now entered by computer, and is made available to the public via the internet. She also noted that the software used by her office has an intricate accounting system which the public is really not aware of. More than $5 million dollars is collected through the court system in Payne County, and about $3.5 million dollars of that total is forwarded to 29 different state agencies.
Despite having a much heavier case load than back in 1992, the Court Clerk’s office has only one more employee than when Lambert began her tenure, a total of 18 people. Lambert says the software does the work of three or four more people.
***
