Convicted housing fraud figure poised to oversee Prince George’s land records

A convicted housing-fraud figure is poised to oversee the office that records deeds, liens and other real-estate filings in Prince George’s County, putting the county’s property records system under sharper public scrutiny.

The Clerk of the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County is a locally elected judicial office, and the county’s Land Records Department serves as the custodian for recording and maintaining all public records tied to real estate. Maryland Courts says every county and Baltimore City has a land records department inside the circuit court clerk’s office, where deeds and other property documents are kept and made publicly accessible.

That makes the office more than a ceremonial post. The clerk’s duties are established and regulated by Maryland law, and the records handled there sit at the center of property ownership, title transfers and fraud prevention. In a county as large and active as Prince George’s, the office’s files can determine whether a home sale closes cleanly, whether a lien is properly recorded, and whether a title company can confirm the chain of ownership without delay or dispute.

The main formal check on the office is the election system itself. The Prince George’s County Board of Elections supervises elections, voter registration, record keeping and election-law administration, and the county’s 2026 election cycle has already included several concrete deadlines and problems. Candidate filing for the 2026 gubernatorial election opened Feb. 25, 2025, closed Feb. 24, 2026, at 9 p.m., early voting ran June 11 through June 18, and Election Day was June 23. The board also said some voters who received gubernatorial primary ballots mailed before May 14 were sent the wrong party ballot and will receive replacement ballots.

Mahasin El Amin is the incumbent clerk. County records say she first took office Dec. 3, 2018, after winning election in November 2018, and was re-elected in November 2022. She is now serving her second term as the county’s clerk, the official who would oversee the land records office that underpins the county’s real-estate paper trail.

For homeowners, buyers and title professionals, the risk is immediate: the same office that confirms who owns land also handles the documents that can expose forged filings, liens and disputes before they spread. In Prince George’s County, trust in that office is not abstract, because the county’s property system depends on it every day.