Summit County Clerk Eve Furse said she plans to retire in 2026 and will not seek reelection.
“I am very much looking forward to having fun,” Furse laughed. “I think people in Summit County have an appreciation for recreation. We like to get out and have a good time, as I think most people probably do, but I think that we’re slightly more focused on that in Summit County than in other places. I have the good fortune to be able to retire at this point, and it’s just that time in my life.”
Furse grew up in a small town near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and obtained her undergraduate degree in public policy analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early ’90s. She then attended New York University to study law.
“I’ve always been interested in public service and policy issues,” Furse said. “Growing up in my town, my best friend’s dad was the head of the Republican Party and my ballet teacher was the head of the Democratic Party, so politics were always around. I’m very used to that and comfortable in that space, and I have been since I was little.”
After graduating from law school in 1996, Furse moved to Utah to clerk for Utah Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham, a role involving legal research and helping with administrative tasks. She fell in love with the Beehive State, taking advantage of its ski runs and mountain biking trails, and moved to Peoa in 2006. However, her interest in the Summit County Clerk’s Office wasn’t piqued until the 2020 presidential election.
“One of the big takeaways for me was just how critical county clerks were to making voting accessible and providing accurate election results,” she said. “Having been a judge at that point, I had decided I had accomplished everything I wanted to as a lawyer, so I knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer, but I was trying to figure out what I did want to do and was looking at options, and this one came up.”
Former Summit County Clerk Kent Jones announced his retirement in 2021 after almost 25 years in office, and Furse, whose term as a federal magistrate judge expired in April 2020, decided to seek the midterm appointment. She earned the support of the local Democratic Party and was nominated to fill the seat, and Furse won a full term in the 2022 election.
“I think it’s really important for the Clerk’s Office to be an elected office,” Furse said. “I was agnostic on that issue when I first started, and different states do it differently. But if the person overseeing elections for a county is appointed instead of elected, there are different consequences. The beauty of our system, where it’s elected, is that voters can actually look at the candidate’s thoughts with respect to elections and whether the clerk is going to advocate for what they hope to see in elections as far as the process by which they get to vote.”
Furse described her five years as the clerk as incredibly busy, especially because of the state Legislature’s focus on election laws. The office has also doubled its full-time staff since 2021, implemented new software to better broadcast Summit County Council meetings and made the switch to a different business licensing platform.
“The 2020 election also has driven a lot more legislation and oversight of elections at the state level,” Furse said. “Between the new laws, the Legislature and policies from the Lieutenant Governor’s staff, we’ve had to increase the frequency and detail of our voter list maintenance, we’ve increased documentation requirements with respect to ballots, and we’ve had to implement a reconciliation and meet reporting requirements that require daily updates on ballot status.”
This past year has had some unique challenges for the Clerk’s Office, too, with Furse helping to redistrict the county for future County Council elections. She also acknowledged the controversy surrounding the referendum opposing the Dakota Pacific Real Estate development in Kimball Junction, saying it was a tough decision to reject the signature packets. Furse analyzed the requirements for petitions and spoke with the county’s lawyers, and said the county “felt like we really had no other choice.”
“Making hard choices like that is something that elected officials have to do. It’s part of the job,” Furse explained. “You don’t always get to have the outcome match what your personal preference might be, and making that distinction is something I did, and it’s something I would hope whoever takes over the office would be able to do, to put aside their own political opinions in order to administer the duties of the office according to the requirements of the law and the Constitution.”
Furse said her preference and philosophy is to help the public, and she strives to ensure interactions with the Clerk’s Office are positive because it helps build trust and faith in the government.
Furse said having high ethical standards is an important quality for any elected official to have, especially the county clerk. Adaptability and good organization are key, too.
“We deal with a lot of state and local laws, and we are very involved in both the local legislative process with (County) Council but also on the state level with the state’s legislative process, so you need a willingness and an interest to be involved in those things and also to make yourself aware of what those laws are and follow them,” she added.
So far, only former Summit County Council Chair Malena Stevens has announced her intent to run for clerk. The candidate filing window for local elections opens at 8 a.m. on Jan. 2 and closes at 5 p.m. on Jan. 8.
Regardless of who else might apply for the position, Furse encouraged voters to engage with candidates and speak to them about elections.
“Knowing the candidate’s values with respect to voting and whether they match up with yours is a really critical point,” she said. “I would imagine the people running for clerk will be very vocal about how they view election processes and voting and what they hope to see happen. I also think in the local setting, whether it’s the county offices or municipal offices, that we’re a small enough area that you can call them.”