Politics used to be pretty predictable. The same families showed up in election after election — Ms. Davis succeeded her mother, who was clerk for 37 years. Caudill is as common a last name around the county as Smith or Jones. Then came “the whole deal that went on,” as some call the events of 2015.

The county clerk’s office is essential: running elections, recording deeds, handling titles and issuing licenses for hunting, fishing and, of course, marriages. It is the front line of the government, the arbiter of what is officially recognized as legitimate, and what is not.

Thus Mr. Ermold was maddened to hear his competitors, Mr. Caudill in particular, complain of the inconveniences of the summer of 2015, as he spent most of his life officially marginalized and in many ways left at risk.

“I not only understand but I’ve been dealing with it for the past 44 years,” he said.

Still, it is a county office, one of 120 in Kentucky, and its commission is carrying out the routine details of bureaucracy, not setting a big social agenda. Mr. Ermold acknowledged that he had to combine his campaign message of redemption and social progress with an assurance that he could efficiently manage car tags and fishing licenses. “I kind of didn’t focus on that at first because I just took it for granted that I have the experience to do it,” he said.

Ms. Davis, who was unopposed on Primary Day, has a similarly two-pronged message. In an interview on Tuesday she insisted that she never sought the attention that came that summer, that she in fact hates conflict. She was not sure if she would run again this year but felt called to do so, and she wants to focus her campaign on her experience running the office.