It doesn’t get a lot of attention from voters and it doesn’t get a lot of attention from the media. Generally, people don’t know who the recorder is, what he or she does, or who is running for the office.
Without much to go on, voters usually re-elect the incumbent, to the point that Gary Ott was re-elected as recorder in 2014, despite some indications at the time that he was suffering from the early stages of dementia.
This year was different. Adam Gardiner, a former Republican state representative who was chosen to replace Ott, lost his re-election bid to Rashelle Hobbs.