About
The Morris County Clerk is a Constitutional Officer, holding a position that is established by the New Jersey Constitution. The term of office is five years. The position was initially created to serve the public by acting as the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, though duties have grown to include the recording and maintenance of every conveyance of real property such as deeds, mortgages, liens, maps and other related legal documents.
Our Records Vault holds a wide variety of books containing many different types of property records and other related documents that have been recorded in our office since the late 1700’s. Our oldest deeds go back as far as 1785, years before the Conveyancing Act of 1799 was established. That act first made it necessary for County Clerks to keep record of all transfers of legal title of property. Since then, our office’s recording responsibilities have grown to include a variety of other documents such as: agreements to reimburse, certificates of incorporation, institutional liens, judgments, naturalization petitions, subdivision maps and tax sale certificates, to name a few.
Our office is a passport application acceptance facility for the U.S. Department of State. We also issue ID cards to Morris County seniors and veterans, record the military discharge records of veterans, administer the oath of office to all Notaries Public, and record the trade name certificates of all non-incorporated businesses. The County Clerk even officiates marriage ceremonies regularly.
In addition, our office administers many important election functions. These include the preparation and mailing of all mail-in ballots and sample ballots, the acceptance of nominating petitions, the design and preparation of voting machine ballot layouts and the tallying of election results.