Tuesday saw a back-and-forth over the Monroe County Clerk's Office and the looming election for that position.

Republican candidate Karla Boyce went out of her way to not criticize the workers at the clerk's office, but says she believes the way Democrat Jamie Romeo is running the office is currently unacceptable.

What You Need To Know

  • Karla Boyce and Jamie Romeo are running for Monroe County clerk

  • Boyce criticized long wait times for DMV appointments

  • Romeo said that the long wait times can be attributed to an executive order from the governor that forced them to run by appointment only

  • If re-elected, Romeo says she will be focused on providing a safe work place for county clerk employees and expanding access to their services

"There is a crisis in our county clerk's office," said Boyce at a press conference. "Wait times over a month for DMV appointments, residents forced to go to other county to conduct their business and mail in transactions not processed for days. This is the record of Ms. Romeo, and she should be ashamed."

Romeo, the Democrat and incumbent, explained that the long wait times at the DMV can be attributed to an executive order from the governor that forced them to run by appointment only.

Romeo added that it wouldn't be ideal to have walk-ins at DMVs right now.

"You can get up to 100 people waiting or getting served at one time in addition to our staff. That's not a safe environment in the respects of COVID-19. You can't really properly socially distance and keep people safe, so we know those days are not going to be ahead anytime soon," said Romeo.

Boyce says she has a five-point plan that involves safely reopening the mobile DMV offices, revamping the online appointment system, instituting no-cost passport photos, allocating more resources to process mail-in transactions, and fighting for what she says is a fair share of funding.

"I look to enacting this plan to get the county clerk's office back on track. As your county clerk, I will ensure that our office is the most sufficient, customer friendly and accessible in New York State," said Boyce.

If re-elected, Romeo says she will be focused on providing a safe work place for county clerk employees and expanding access to their services.

"It's a commitment that I'm there to do that job to be the county clerk, to make sure we are making more effective processes for all of our transactions; for digitizing all of our land recording records; from making sure we can do more to expand our DMV services to do it in a safe, effective way, not to meet a partisan headline," said Romeo.

Boyce's platform can be found here and Romeo's can be located here.