Missouri Secretary of State

Missouri State Executives

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The Secretary of State for Missouri is a member of the executive branch of government and has constitutional as well as statutory duties in the state of Missouri.

Current officeholder

The current officeholder is Robin Carnahan (D). She was first elected to the statewide position in 2004 and was subsequently re-elected in 2008.

Authority

The state Constitution addresses the office of secretary of state in Article IV, the Executive Department.

Under Article IV, Section 14:

The secretary of state shall be custodian of the seal of the state, and authenticate therewith all official acts of the governor except the approval of laws...

Qualifications

Here is a list of the standard qualifications necessary under Missouri State Law in order to be considered for the Office of Secretary of State:

• Must be a citizen of the United States
• Must be a legal resident of the state for one year immediately preceding election or appointment
• Is not delinquent in the payment of any state income taxes, personal property taxes, real property taxes on the place of residence as stated in the declaration of candidacy
• Is not a past or present corporate officer of any fee office that owes any taxes to the state
• Has not been found guilty of or pled guilty to a felony or misdemeanor under the federal laws of the United States of America
• Has not been convicted of or found guilty of or pled guilty to a felony under the laws of Missouri

Elections

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

The Office of Secretary of State is an elected position with elections held every four years. Elections are held with presidential elections. There are no term limits for this office.

Duties

Article IV, Section 14 of the state Constitution outlines the following duties Secretary of State:

• Custodian of the seal of the state
• Keep a register of the official acts of the governor
• Act as custodian of such records and documents

Divisions

There are six divisions that the secretary of state works with, which include:

• Business Services: annual reports, small business advocacy, and business registration.
• State Archives
• Elections: voting information and procedures, election results and statistics, Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and registration of candidates
• Securities and Investing: filing complaints, smart investing, registration, and enforcement of regulations
• State Library
• Publications: tracking of state documents, the state seal, voting rosters and manuals.

Electoral history

2004

• 2004 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary

• Robin Carnahan ran unopposed in this contest

2004 Race for Secretary of State - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Robin Carnahan	51.1%
	Republican Party	Catherine Hanaway	46.4%
	Libertarian Party	Christopher Davis	1.9%
	Constitution Party	Donna Ivanovich	0.6%
Total Votes			2,678,326

2008

• 2008 Race for Secretary of State - Democratic Primary

• Robin Carnahan ran unopposed in this contest

2008 Race for Secretary of State - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Robin Carnahan	61.8%
	Republican Party	Mitchell Hubbard	35.6%
	Libertarian Party	Wes Upchurch	1.4%
	Constitution Party	Denise C. Neely	1.2%
Total Votes			2,829,810

Role in the initiative process

Drafting of the ballot

In order for a ballot to gain approval in the state of Missouri, a petitioner must submit a sample petition, at which time the petitioner will receive a receipt. According to the guidelines of the state, the text for the ballot is then sent to the state attorney general to be check for the initiative's legality and format.

Within 10 days the initiative will be returned to the secretary of state's office. The secretary of state will evaluate the attorney general's comments as to the format of the petition and choose to reject or approve it. Under this final appraisal a letter is sent out to the petitioner alerting them of the secretary of state's decision.

If the initiative was approved then a summary statement is prepared and sent to the attorney general within 10 days. The attorney general will then check the summary for its legality and format before returning it to the secretary of state, again within 10 days. The secretary of state then has 3 days to certify the ballot title and send a copy of the title, summary and fiscal note to the petitioner.

The information about the ballot will be posted on the secretary of state website.

Submitting the ballot

Petitions must be submitted to the secretary of state within 6 months of the general elections.

Petitioners must turn in the paperwork showing the number of pages per county, circulator's reports, and contact information. Within 20 days of receiving this information the secretary of state shall prepare and send fair ballot language statements that explain what a vote for or against a measure would represent. The attorney general then will double check the summary for legality and form and return in to the secretary of state within 10 days.

Signature verification

Signatures are verified by the local election authority. Time for the delivery of signatures to each election authority varies on the number of petitions filed with the secretary of state.

• At least one petition: signatures must be in local offices no later than two weeks after being filed with the secretary of state.
• Total of three petitions: signatures must be in local offices no later than three weeks from being filed.
• More than three petitions: signatures must be in local offices no later than the fourth week after being filed.

When the local election authority receives the signatures, the signatures will be verified by either choosing a random sampling or verifying the authentication of every signature. All verified signatures must be certified and delivered to the Secretary of State by 5:00pm on the last Tuesday in July prior to the election.

If the ballot is determined to be sufficient, the secretary of state will issue a certificate stating that it will be on the ballot, other wise there will be a statement giving the reasons for the insufficiency.

The secretary of state has until 5:00 pm on the 13th Tuesday prior to the general election to certify the petition.

Voting process

Turnout

Following a compilation of turnout estimates submitted by the 116 election authorities around the state, 51 percent of registered voters are expected to turnout for the mid-term elections on Nov. 2, 2010, according to the secretary of state's office. If the 51 percent prediction is met, more than 2.1 million votes will be cast. In the 2006 mid-term elections, 53.1 percent of registered voters turned out on election day, compared to 51 percent in 2002, and 43.4 percent in 1998. There are 4,137,545 residents registered to vote in the Nov. 2 elections. The turnout for the Aug. 3 primary in Missouri was 22.9 percent, less than the 24 percent predicted by the secretary of state's office in July.

The secretary of state's office missed the estimate. Across Missouri on Election Day, 46.8 percent of registered voters turned out to cast a ballot, according to estimates released by the Missouri Secretary of State. Approximately 1,9369,918, out of 4,137,545 registered voters in the state went to a polling place. Election results must be certified by the secretary of state no later than the second Tuesday in December. A candidate who lost a race by less than 1 percent may request a recount within seven days of certification.

Election Day problems

On Election Day, poll workers across Missouri reported difficulties accessing the electronic database designed to verify voter registration information. A spokesperson for the Missouri Secretary of State said that for part of the day the voter look-up tool used by poll workers was not available online. The secretary of state's office said it did not receive any reports of voters being kept from casting a ballot.

A piece of computer hardware failed on Election day, preventing the poll workers from accessing the central electronic database designed to verify voter registration for part of the day. One of the load balancers -- a piece of computer hardware that manages Internet traffic by determining how requests are sent to servers -- is to blame for the problems with the system, according to a spokesperson from the secretary of state's office. Once the problem was identified, traffic was rerouted and everything worked again by early afternoon.

Freida Keough, a roving deputy for the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners, described the problems she encountered on Election Day. Her job was to drive around and check polling places in south St. Louis County. She said she personally witnessed at least three people leave after getting frustrated. She said other poll workers also noticed people leaving. One of the alternative methods to verify voter registration was to use a mobile phone to call local election authorities. But Keough said that she and others had problems throughout the day getting a hold of anyone at the county election board. "We could never get through," she said. "We gave up."

Compensation

Article IV, Section 21 of the state Constitution addresses compensation of executive officials:

Under Article IV, Section 21:

The officers named in this article shall receive for their services salaries fixed by law, which shall not be increased or diminished during their terms.

In 2010, the Missouri Secretary of State was paid an estimated $107,746 according to the Council of State Governments.

Former officeholders

Since 1820, Missouri has had 38 secretaries of state. Of those 38, 31 have been Democrats, 6 Republicans, and one Union.

#	Name	Took office	Left office	Party
1	Joshua Barton	1820	1821	Democratic
2	William Grymes Pettus	1821	1824	Democratic
3	Hamilton Rowan Gamble	1824	1826	Democratic
4	Spencer Darwin Pettis	1826	1828	Democratic
5	Priestly Haggin McBride	1829	1830	Democratic
6	John Cummins Edwards	1830	1835	Democratic
7	Henry Shurlds	1835	1837	Democratic
8	John Cummins Edwards	1837	1837	Democratic
9	Peter Garland Glover	1837	1839	Democratic
10	James Lawrence Minor	1839	1845	Democratic
11	Faulkland Heard Martin	1845	1849	Democratic
12	Ephriam Brevard Ewing	1849	1853	Democratic
13	John M. Richardson	1853	1857	Democratic
14	Benjamin Franklin Massey	1857	1861	Democratic
15	Mordecai Oliver	1861	1865	Union
16	Francis A. Rodman	1865	1871	Republican
17	Eugene F. Weigel	1871	1875	Democratic
18	Michael Knowles McGrath	1875	1889	Democratic
19	Alexander A. Lesueur	1889	1901	Democratic
20	Sam Baker Cook	1901	1905	Democratic
21	John Ephriam Swanger	1905	1909	Republican
22	Cornelius Roach	1909	1917	Democratic
23	John Leo Sullivan	1917	1921	Democratic
24	Charles U. Becker	1921	1933	Republican
25	Dwight H. Brown	1933	1944	Democratic
26	Gregory C. Stockard	1944	1945	Republican
27	Wilson Bell	1945	1947	Democratic
28	Edgar C. Nelson	1947	1949	Democratic
29	Walter H. Toberman	1949	1960	Democratic
30	Robert W. Crawford	1960	1961	Democratic
31	Warren E. Hearnes	1961	1965	Democratic
32	James C. Kirkpatrick	1965	1985	Democratic
33	Roy D. Blunt	1985	1993	Republican
34	Judith K. Moriarty	1993	1994	Democratic
35	Richard Hanson	1994	1994	Democratic
36	Rebecca McDowell Cook	1994	2001	Democratic
37	Matt Blunt	2001	2005	Republican
38	Robin Carnahan	2005	Present	Democratic

Contact information

Capitol Address:

Office of the Secretary of State
State Information Center
600 West Main
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Phone: (573) 751-4936
E-mail: SOSmain@sos.mo.gov

See also

• Robin Carnahan, Missouri Secretary of State
• Governor of Missouri
• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri
• Attorney General of Missouri
• Missouri Constitution

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Missouri Secretary of State
• Missouri Secretary of State Election website