Secretary of State of Kansas
Encyclopedia
The Secretary of State
of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas
.
. Robinson was elected in December 1859, in anticipation of statehood
for Kansas, and sworn in after Kansas was admitted to the Union
in February 1861.
As a result of a bond
scandal, Secretary Robinson was impeached
on February 26, 1862, along with Governor Charles L. Robinson
and State Auditor George S. Hillyer. Secretary Robinson was convicted by the Kansas Senate
on June 12, 1862, and removed from his office, becoming the first state executive branch official to be impeached and removed from office in U.S. history. Hillyer was also removed from office, on June 16, but Governor Robinson was acquitted. Sanders R. Shepard succeeded to the job of Secretary of State on July 28, 1862.
s 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.
s, trade name
s, and lien
s made pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code
.
The secretary regulates a wide variety of businesses, including sports agent
s, trade union
s, cemeteries
, and funeral home
s.
and administrative law
publications such as session laws, regulation
s, 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
.
Secretary of State (U.S. state government)
Secretary of State is an official in the state governments of 47 of the 50 states of the United States, as well as Puerto Rico and other U.S. possessions. In Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, this official is called the Secretary of the Commonwealth...
of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
.
History
The first Secretary of State for Kansas was John Winter Robinson, a physician from Manhattan, KansasManhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...
. Robinson was elected in December 1859, in anticipation of statehood
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
for Kansas, and sworn in after Kansas was admitted to the Union
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in February 1861.
As a result of a bond
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
scandal, Secretary Robinson was impeached
Impeachment in the United States
Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office...
on February 26, 1862, along with Governor Charles L. Robinson
Charles L. Robinson
Charles Lawrence Robinson was the first Governor of Kansas. He was also the first governor of a US state to be impeached, although he was not convicted or removed from office. To date he is the only governor of Kansas to be impeached...
and State Auditor George S. Hillyer. Secretary Robinson was convicted by the Kansas Senate
Kansas Senate
The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 Senators representing an equal amount of districts, each with a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Members of the Senate are elected to a four year term....
on June 12, 1862, and removed from his office, becoming the first state executive branch official to be impeached and removed from office in U.S. history. Hillyer was also removed from office, on June 16, but Governor Robinson was acquitted. Sanders R. Shepard succeeded to the job of Secretary of State on July 28, 1862.
Electoral
The Secretary of State is the chief electionElection
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
s officer of the state, administering elections and voter registration
Voter registration
Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens and residents to check in with some central registry specifically for the purpose of being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive.-Centralized/compulsory vs...
throughout the state. The office also files campaign finance
Campaign finance
Campaign finance refers to all funds that are raised and spent in order to promote candidates, parties or policies in some sort of electoral contest. In modern democracies such funds are not necessarily devoted to election campaigns. Issue campaigns in referendums, party activities and party...
reports and registers lobbyists
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
. 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, trademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
s, trade name
Trade name
A trade name, also known as a trading name or a business name, is the name which a business trades under for commercial purposes, although its registered, legal name, used for contracts and other formal situations, may be another....
s, and lien
Lien
In law, a lien is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation...
s made pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code
Uniform Commercial Code
The Uniform Commercial Code , first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been promulgated in conjunction with efforts to harmonize the law of sales and other commercial transactions in all 50 states within the United States of America.The goal of harmonizing state law is...
.
The secretary regulates a wide variety of businesses, including sports agent
Sports agent
A sports agent procures and negotiates employment and endorsement contracts for an athlete.In return, the sports agent generally receives between 4 and 10% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, though these figures vary...
s, trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, cemeteries
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
, and funeral home
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
s.
Administrative
The Secretary's Publications Section is responsible for publishing various legal and informational documents for the state. This includes statutoryStatute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...
and administrative law
Administrative law
Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...
publications such as session laws, regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
s, and the state's gazette
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
, the Kansas Register.
The Secretary also operates "Safe at Home," the state's Address Confidentiality Program
Address Confidentiality Program
An address confidentiality program allows victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking or other types of crime to receive mail at a confidential address, while keeping their actual address undisclosed...
and conducts census adjustments
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
.
Kansas Territory Secretaries of State
| Name | Term | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel Woodson | 1854-1857 | Democratic |
| Frederick P. Stanton | 1857 | Democratic |
| James W. Denver | 1857-1858 | Democratic |
| Hugh Sleight Walsh | 1858-1860 | Democratic |
| George M. Beebe | 1860-1861 | Democratic |
State Secretaries of State
| Name | Term | Party |
|---|---|---|
| John Winter Robinson | 1861-1862 | Republican |
| Sanders Rufus Shepherd | 1862-1863 | Republican |
| Warren Wirt Henry Lawrence | 1863-1865 | Republican |
| Rinaldo Allen Barker | 1865-1869 | Republican |
| Thomas Moonlight Thomas Moonlight Thomas Moonlight was a United States politician and general.-Birth:Thomas was baptised on 30 September 1833 in St Vigeans, Angus, Scotland with birth record number 319/0040 0169... |
1869-1871 | Republican |
| William Hillary Smallwood | 1871-1875 | Republican |
| Thomas Horne Cavanaugh | 1875-1879 | Republican |
| James Smith | 1879-1885 | Republican |
| Edwin Bird Allen | 1885-1889 | Republican |
| William Higgins | 1889-1893 | Republican |
| Russell Scott Osborn | 1893-1895 | Populist |
| William Corydon Edwards | 1895-1897 | Republican |
| William Eben Bush | 1897-1899 | Populist |
| George Alfred Clark | 1899-1903 | Republican |
| Joel Randall Burrow | 1903-1907 | Republican |
| Charles Eugene Denton | 1907-1911 | Republican |
| Charles Harrison Sessions | 1911-1915 | Republican |
| John Thomas Botkin | 1915-1919 | Republican |
| Lewis Julian Pettijohn | 1919-1922 | Republican |
| David Owen McCray | 1922-1923 | Republican |
| Frank Joseph Ryan | 1923-1929 | Republican |
| Edgbert Albert Cornell | 1929-1933 | Republican |
| Frank Joseph Ryan | 1933-1949 | Republican |
| Larry Ryan | 1949-1951 | Democratic |
| Paul R. Shanahan | 1951-1966 | Republican |
| Elwill M. Shanahan | 1966-1978 | Republican |
| Jack Brier | 1978-1987 | Republican |
| Bill Graves Bill Graves William Preston "Bill" Graves , was the 43rd Governor of Kansas from 1995 until 2003.Graves was born in Salina, Kansas in 1953 to parents who owned a trucking firm... |
1987-1995 | Republican |
| Ron Thornburgh Ron Thornburgh Ron E. Thornburgh, was the 29th Secretary of State of Kansas. He was elected in to his first term in 1994 and was subsequently re-elected in 1998, 2002, and 2006.... |
1995-2010 | Republican |
| Chris Biggs Chris Biggs Chris Biggs was the 30th Secretary of State of Kansas. He was appointed on March 16, 2010 by Governor Mark Parkinson to replace Ron Thornburgh who resigned on February 15, 2010. On Nov. 2nd, 2010, he was defeated for election to a full term.Biggs Served as Kansas Securities Commissioner from 2003... |
2010-2011 | Democratic |
| Kris Kobach Kris Kobach Kris W. Kobach is the Secretary of State of Kansas. He is also currently of counsel with the Immigration Law Reform Institute in Washington, D.C.... |
2011-present | Republican |