Secretary of State 101
You can do this
- You are allowed to point to official .gov pages when someone drifts into myths—politeness and accuracy go together.
- It is fine to say “I’m going to look that up and get back to you” about a detail. That is how trust is built.
Guide: Secretary of State 101
What the office actually runs
Elections: statewide voter registration, candidate and petition filings, ballot certification, compiling county returns, voting-equipment training, and chairing the State Board of Election Commissioners. County clerks still run Election Day.
Business filings: corporations, LLCs, partnerships, nonprofits, annual reports, franchise tax, UCC, and trademarks through Business and Commercial Services.
Notaries: commissions, eNotary, the public notary search, and apostilles for documents used abroad.
Records: Administrative Code and Register, legislative acts, city boundary filings, precinct maps, and the public ethics-filing search.
Capitol: building and grounds, Capitol Police, tours and civics programs, and internal operations.
- The Secretary of State is not the legislature. Big policy still goes through the General Assembly. This job is administration of the systems listed above.
What volunteers often get asked
“Is this the person who keeps my data safe at the polls?” — Talk about the role of public trust, local election officials, and the rule of law without pretending one office is a superpower.
“Why should I care if it is boring?” — Because the boring parts of democracy are what stop chaos from being normalized. Calm, accurate administration is a civil right for everyone who depends on the count.
Ready to help with this work?
When you volunteer through the form, we tag your signup with this guide so a coordinator can match you with the right next step—nothing fancy, just so we do not treat a host the same as a data volunteer. Use the same volunteer form everyone else does—we will tag it from this page.
Go deeper
Primary sources and next steps
Use these when you are teaching, tabling, or writing a local letter to the editor.