Vincent Puleo for Suffolk County clerk

The position of Suffolk County clerk has been somewhat unusually in the public eye recently for two reasons. First was the backroom political struggle that led to a tightly fought GOP primary loss for the incumbent clerk, Judith Pascale. Pascale has been in the role since her appointment by former Gov. George Pataki in 2006, and did not get the backing of the county Republican and Conservative parties this time around.

Second was the cyberattack detected in September that resulted in the shutdown of a host of Suffolk County services.

Pascale’s office has pushed to restore crucial services, but major questions remain about how to protect residents’ data and paperwork in the future.

That’s a prime concern for Vincent Puleo, 68, a Conservative from Nesconset who has identified the need for secure records “from the top all the way down.” Wisely, he wants to follow IT best practices, have better defenses for the county at large, and ensure sufficient IT training for the office.

Puleo has a wealth of experience in this line of work due to having served more than 16 years as Smithtown Town clerk, an office that he calls a “hub” that residents often cycle through when they need something from local government. He sees constituent service as the key issue for any clerk’s office, and has the right ideas for how to make those services better. They include improvements to the clerk’s website, more of a “one-click operation” that’s less clunky for Suffolk residents, and more online consultations to walk people through their bureaucratic issues.

Commendably, he is in touch with the modern impulse to online access.

“Those records that are able to be accessed online should be accessed online, but securely,” he said in an endorsement interview with the editorial board.

Puleo also is ready to push for more funds for his office when needed, a fairly perennial issue that has even more resonance in light of the need to protect residents’ information.

His opponent is Lisa Jimenez, 59, of Medford, who has worked at Suffolk Off-Track Betting Corp. for more than four decades. She, like Puleo, sees the clerk role as largely nonpartisan, one where the officeholder should be focused on improving the experience of constituents — in particular, groups like veterans and those who have handicaps — no matter what information or application or document they need. Jimenez has interesting ideas about bringing the office to alternate locations in the county, but she does not have Puleo’s wealth of experience and readiness to hit the ground running right away.

Newsday endorses Puleo.