The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has selected the county’s first stand-alone registrar of voters, after voting to split the position from the clerk-recorder-assessor earlier this year.
Evelyn Mendez was chosen to fill the role, which manages elections, maintains voter rolls, and promotes voting education campaigns, among other election-centered duties.
Deva Proto will remain as clerk-recorder-assessor, which is an elected position that manages public records, issues marriage licenses and assesses property values, among other duties. She is up for election again in 2026.
Splitting the positions was meant to eliminate a conflict of interest that arose each time the office was up for election, according to Board of Supervisors chair Lynda Hopkins.
The change was also made to facilitate a heavier workload for the registrar of voters following a slew of recently enacted elections laws at the federal and state levels. Those include more frequent security meetings with state and federal officials, enhanced signature verification procedures, expanded voting by mail, pre-registration of teenagers, and registration changes that are transmitted more frequently after streamlining systems with the Department of Motor Vehicles, according to a county staff report.
Mendez has been serving as a division manager in the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters’ Office for the past six years, according to the county. Before that, she worked in the California Secretary of State’s Elections Division. She has worked on more than 110 elections and multiple levels of government.
She will begin by managing a fall election with seven local special districts holding elections, before gearing up to oversee the 2026 midterms cycle, which includes a June primary and November general election.
Mendez could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Hopkins said the board was excited to have Mendez as the first person in the role.
“With her robust experience in running elections, Evelyn Mendez will continue to uphold the integrity and trust in our election system,” Hopkins said in a statement.
The Board of Supervisors will have a final vote on Mendez’s appointment at its regular meeting on Tuesday. Her starting salary will be $195,041.