On Jan. 26, 2025, deputy mayor of the Village of New Paltz Alexandria Wojcik announced that she would be running for the Ulster County clerk position in the upcoming election. She is running against Taylor Bruck, who has held the position for seven months. A longtime activist, Wojcik hopes to bring her background in archivism and social justice to the clerk position.
The county clerk oversees digital and physical archives, records and files documents and manages the DMV. Ulster County is home to some of the oldest documents in the entire county, some dating back to the 1650s.
“The county clerk is the nexus of the most constituent interactions of any position,” said Wojcik. “Here in the Village of New Paltz, I’ve been setting a new bar for meeting people where they’re at … I have some ideas for the position that can really revolutionize the way people think about government.”
Some of Wojcik’s plans for county clerk include holding office hours with all municipalities, helping people adapt to digital data, creating public records of the archives, publishing a monthly report of the clerk, increasing the clerk revenue and expanding the hours of the DMV. Many do not know what the exact roles of the county clerk are, and Wojcik hopes to enlighten the public and create a better relationship between the public and the clerk.
Furthermore, Wojcik wants to expand the use of the DMV mobile bus specifically to help immigrant and trans communities gain safer access to the DMV.
“Immigrant and trans plus people are really under attack,” Wojcik said. “I see this as an opportunity to partner with organizations that know these marginalized communities best. You got to provide services to people who need those services, but in spaces they’re comfortable and truly safe, not a government building.”
Taylor Bruck, the current county clerk, has worked in the county for eight years. Before becoming county clerk, he began as an archivist in 2016, then the deputy county clerk in 2022 and then finally the deputy records manager in 2024.
“I’ve got a good grasp on what has to be done here and the challenges that come up,” Bruck said. “I genuinely love this work. I love the records. I spent years as an archivist and probably looked through these records more than anybody.”
Bruck’s aspirations for county clerk, if he were to be reelected, include expanding the digital photography archive and furthering developments on the Matthewis Persen House Museum in Kingston. Like Wojcik, he plans to expand hours for the DMV and for the DMV mobile bus.
If Wojcik were to win, she would be giving up her position as deputy mayor. Ulster County residents can vote for county clerk in the June 24, 2025 primary election.
