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News
News
By Allison Joy
CRYSTAL FALLS – After more than a decade working for Iron County, Julie Kezerle is retiring from her role as county clerk.
A Forest Park graduate, Kezerle married her high school sweetheart, Emil Kezerle Jr., in 1985. Kezerle worked as a legal secretary in Marquette for 13 years. The couple had three children, two daughters and one son, before returning to Iron County in 2001.
Kezerle worked for then-prosecuting attorney Joe Sartorelli for just under a year before deciding to focus full-time on her family. She returned to the Prosecutor’s Office in 2008, where she worked under then-prosecuting attorney Melissa Powell.
Kezerle took a full-time position in the county clerk’s office in 2013 and became the county clerk in 2019.
“The county clerk’s office is so diversified,” Kezerle said of her role. “Elections are just a part of what we do. We hold the vital records, circuit court files, concealed pistol licenses, assumed names, notary applications – among other things.”\
It was a busy time in elections when Kezerle took over as county clerk. Apportionment, the process of reassigning representation based on the population, occurred following the 2020 census. The Covid-19 pandemic meant additional health and safety precautions at poll stations as well as an increase in absentee voters. And then there was the tension of the 2020 election of President Joe Biden, whose defeat of incumbent Donald Trump led to riots at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
“It was a very stressful time,” Kezerle said. “I received hateful emails, phone calls and even a death threat.”
Kezerle said she would often encourage residents to take the election class offered by the county to become a certified election inspector.
“I would tell people if they had questions about elections to learn about how elections are conducted,” she said. “There really are so many checks and balances.”
Amy Donati, who joined the county clerk’s office in 2020, will replace Kezerle as Iron County’s county clerk for the remaining year of Kezerle’s term. The county clerk is an elected position.
“I am looking forward to retirement and spending time with my family and doing some traveling,” Kezerle said. “I have six grandchildren that will keep me busy.”