Kansas Secretary of State

Kansas Secretary of State
General information
Office Type:	Partisan
Office website:	Official Link
Term limits:	None
Structure
Length of term:	4 years
Authority:	Kansas Constitution, Article I § 1
Selection Method:	Elected
Current Officeholder
Name:	Kris Kobach
Officeholder Party:	Republican
Assumed office:	January 2011
Compensation:	$86,003
Elections
Next election:	November 4, 2014
Last election:	November 2, 2010
Other Kansas Executive Offices
Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General • Treasurer • Commissioner of Education • Agriculture Secretary • Insurance Commissioner • Wildlife and Parks Secretary • Labor Secretary • Corporation Commission

The Secretary of State for Kansas is one of four statewide constitutional offices in Kansas. The secretary of state is publicly elected every four years. The office is responsible for overseeing the administration of all state and federal elections in the state.

Current officeholder

The current officeholder is Kris Kobach. Prior to serving as Kansas Secretary of State, Kobach was a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a former Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party (2007-2009).

Authority

The Secretary of State's powers are derived from Article 1 of the Kansas Constitution.

Article 1, Section 1:

The constitutional officers of the executive department shall be the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, who shall have such qualifications as are provided by law.

Qualifications

There are no constitutional or statutory qualifications for this office.

Elections

See also: States with gubernatorial term limits, State legislatures with term limits

As with other executive officers, the Secretary of State is elected to serve for a term of four years of length, which runs concurrently with the term of the governor. The election is held in November and the statewide official takes office the following January.

2010

Kobach (R) defeated Democrat Chris Biggs in the 2010 general election, earning 59% of the vote. Biggs was appointed to the position by Gov. Mark Parkinson in March 2010 following the resignation of 16-year office veteran Republican Ron Thornburgh.

Kansas Secretary of State, General Election, 2010
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Kris Kobach	59%	489,640
	Democratic	Chris Biggs	37.2%	308,641
	Libertarian	Phillip Horatio Lucas	2.1%	17,336
	Reform Party	Derek Langseth	1.7%	13,896
Total Votes				829,513
Election Results Via: Kansas Secretary of State

Term limits

There is no term limit for this office. (Kansas Constitution, Article I § 1)

Vacancies

Article 1, Section 11 addresses the legal procedure for filling Vacancies in Executive Offices.

When the office of secretary of state or attorney general is vacant, the governor shall fill the vacancy by appointment for the remainder of the term. If the secretary of state or attorney general is disabled, the governor shall name a person to assume the powers and duties of the office until the disability is removed.

Duties

Electoral

The secretary of state is the chief elections officer of the state, administering elections and voter registration throughout the state. The office also files campaign finance reports and registers lobbyists. The duty of regulating lobbying and campaign finance is shared with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.

Economic

The secretary operates the business filing center, which registers business entities, trademarks, trade names, and liens made pursuant to the uniform commercial code.

The secretary regulates a wide variety of businesses, including sports agents, trade unions, cemeteries, and funeral homes.

Administrative

The secretary's publications section is responsible for publishing various legal and informational documents for the state. This includes statutory and administrative law publications such as session laws, regulations, and the state's gazette, the Kansas Register.

The secretary also operates "Safe at Home", the state's address confidentiality program and conducts census adjustments.

Dems seek to limit office's power

In December 2012, Democratic leaders said they planned to introduce two measures during the 2013 session to limit Kris Kobach's power as Secretary of State. The first bill, which Sen. Anthony Hensley (D) planned to introduce, would have restricted statewide elected officials to spend no more than 10 paid hours a week on non-official duties. This was mainly seen as a response to Kobach's work on immigration, which often took him out of the state.

The second bill would have made county commissioners in the four largest counties hire election commissioners, preventing Kobach from appointing the positions. Currently elected county clerks oversee elections in 101 of the 105 counties, with the secretary of state appointing the other four.

Compensation

See also: Compensation of state executive officers

The Secretary of State is guaranteed compensation under Article 1, Section 13 of the Kansas Constitution

2012

In 2012, the secretary of state was paid an estimated $86,003. This figure comes from the Council of State Governments.

2011

In 2011, the Secretary of State earned a salary of $86,003.

Contact Information

Capitol Address:
Kansas Secretary of State
Memorial Hall, 1st Floor
120 SW 10th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66612-1594

Phone: (785) 296-4564
E-mail: sos@kssos.org

See also

• Chris Biggs, former Kansas Secretary of State
• Governor of Kansas
• Lieutenant Governor of Kansas
• Attorney General of Kansas
• Kansas Constitution

External links

Suggest a link

• Main website for the Kansas Secretary of State
• Elections website
• Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission
• Wikipedia, Kansas Secretary of State

Portions of this article were adapted from Wikipedia.