ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The 2024 election season is officially over, and there will be some returning and new faces to the Seward County ranks.
One of the offices up for election was for Register of Deeds, which was ultimately won by Jill Garinger, who received 3,014 votes. Garinger said she was happy to receive the news Tuesday evening.
“It was shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday evening when a friend of mine sent me a screenshot of the Leader & Times Facebook Live election coverage that showed the Register of Deeds results, and I was really surprised,” Garinger said. “I felt really good, I felt like all the hard campaign work had paid off. I'm thankful for all of my supporters and I'm looking forward to starting a new chapter with Seward County.”
As Garinger tells it, she is certainly no stranger to the workings of Seward County.
“I was born and raised in Liberal and graduated from Liberal High School, and my mom and dad are also Liberal natives,” Garinger said. “When I got out of high school, I went to Seward County Community College and then went to work full time for Southwest Title Company, which was owned by Sharp-McQueen at the time. I got my title insurance license and worked for them until 2001, which is when I left and started working for Seward County, and that's where I've been ever since. Cynthia Sallaska was the Register of Deeds before Karen Warden, and she passed away in 2012. At that time, I attempted to get the appointment, and Karen was ultimately the one chosen for that position, which she very much deserved. I've actually been wanting to try for Register of Deeds since 2012 with my former life title experience. There's a lot of research into documents and history and all of those aspects, all of which interest me a lot, so that's what prompted me to go for the position.”
Garinger added her past work experience will greatly help her in her new position.
“My former work in title insurance was very, very detail-oriented and required a lot of research as far as the chain of titles of different properties,” Garinger said. “There's a lot of precision and detail involved, and you have to be very sure about everything. And when I worked in title insurance, I already spent quite a bit of time in the Register of Deeds office since that's where all the documents and information were that I needed to look at, so I feel like that will transfer over very well.”
One of her primary goals, Garinger said, will be to make some updates to the Register of Deeds office.
“With the Register of Deeds office, the technology can definitely be updated, and I think that would be my biggest goal,” Garinger said. “I've visited with a few other Register of Deeds officials in some other counties, and they all offer online document access via paid subscription that's authenticated by a username and password. That would be a service that would be provided primarily to realtors, landowners and people who do research through the Register of Deeds office. Instead of having to come in person to the office, they would be able to pay that subscription, get a username and password and have that access to documents online, which would be greatly beneficial. Multiple other counties our size are utilizing such services, and I think it would be great for Seward County to invest in that type of technology.”
Overall, Garinger said, she is excited for her new role.
“I'm really excited to continue working in the community. As a lifelong resident of Liberal and Seward County, I know a lot of people and have worked with many of them in my past work, so I'm looking forward to continuing that and making people proud. I had a lot of great supporters, and I want to make sure I make them proud,” Garinger said. “I want to thank my parents, sister, and the rest of my family for their support. My husband has also been a cheerleader for me and has been right by my side, and so have many of my friends. I just look forward to serving in this position and doing the best I can as an elected official.”
