Secretary of State of Kansas

Secretary of State of the State of Kansas
Seal of the Secretary of State of Kansas
Incumbent Kris Kobach since January 10, 2011
Inaugural holder	John Winter Robinson
Website	kssos.org

The Secretary of State of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas.

History

The first Secretary of State for Kansas was John Winter Robinson, a physician originally from Litchfield, Maine, but who had settled in Manhattan, Kansas in 1857. 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.^[1]

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.^[1]

In 2015, Secretary Kris Kobach requested and was granted by the Kansas Legislature prosecutorial power in voter fraud cases. In October of that year, he filed his first three vote fraud cases dealing with voting in two states.^[2]

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 receives campaign finance reports and registers lobbyists. The duty of regulating lobbying and campaign finance is shared with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. The Secretary was granted by the Kansas Legislature prosecutorial power in voter fraud cases and is the first and only Secretary of state to hold that power.^[2]

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.^[3]

The Secretary also operates "Safe at Home," the state's Address Confidentiality Program^[4] and conducts census adjustments.^[5]

Office holders

Territorial

Kansas

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Kansas
Constitution United States Constitution Kansas Constitution
Executive Government Governor: Sam Brownback Lieutenant Governor: Jeff Colyer Secretary of State: Kris Kobach Attorney General: Derek Schmidt State Treasurer: Ron Estes Insurance Commissioner: Ken Selzer Corporation Commission State Cabinet
Legislature Legislature: Kansas Legislature Senate President of the Senate: Susan Wagle House of Representatives Speaker of the House: Ray Merrick
Judiciary Courts of Kansas Supreme Court Court of Appeals Court of Impeachment
Political Parties Political parties Democratic Party Republican Party Political party strength
Divisions Counties Cities and Towns
Federal Relations Federal representation Senate Jerry Moran (R) Pat Roberts (R) House of Representatives 1: Tim Huelskamp (R) 2: Lynn Jenkins (R) 3: Kevin Yoder (R) 4: Mike Pompeo (R)
Politics of the United States Politics portal

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

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	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	1987–1995	Republican
Ron Thornburgh	1995–2010	Republican
Chris Biggs	2010–2011	Democratic
Kris Kobach	2011–present	Republican

References

1 2 Blackmar, Frank (1912). Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History. Standard Publishing Co. pp. 592–598.
1 2 Eveld, Edward M. (October 28, 2015). "Former Olathe couple among those charged with voter fraud by Kris Kobach". Kansas City Star. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
↑ Legal publications available from the Kansas Secretary of State
↑ Safe at Home main page
↑ Kansas census

External links

Executive offices of Kansas

Governor of Kansas Lieutenant Governor Secretary of State Attorney General State Treasurer Insurance Commissioner Corporation Commission State Cabinet

State secretaries of state in the United States

AL John Merrill (R) AK Byron Mallott (D) AZ Michele Reagan (R) AR Mark Martin (R) CA Alex Padilla (D) CO Wayne Williams (R) CT Denise Merrill (D) DE Jeffrey Bullock (D) FL Ken Detzner (R) GA Brian Kemp (R) HI Shan Tsutsui (D) ID Lawerence Denney (R) IL Jesse White (D) IN Connie Lawson (R) IA Paul Pate (R) KS Kris Kobach (R) KY Alison Grimes (D) LA Tom Schedler (R) ME Matthew Dunlap (D) MD John Wobensmith (R) MA Bill Galvin (D) MI Ruth Johnson (R) MN Steve Simon (D) MS Delbert Hosemann (R) MO Jason Kander (D) MT Linda McCulloch (D) NE John Gale (R) NV Barbara Cegavske (R) NH Bill Gardner (D) NJ Kim Guadagno (R) NM Brad Winter (R) NY Cesar Perales (D) NC Elaine Marshall (D) ND Al Jaeger (R) OH Jon Husted (R) OK Chris Benge (R) OR Jeanne Atkins (D) PA Pedro Cortés (D) RI Nellie Gorbea (D) SC Mark Hammond (R) SD Shantel Krebs (R) TN Tre Hargett (R) TX Carlos Cascos (R) UT Spencer Cox (R) VT Jim Condos (D) VA Levar Stoney (D) WA Kim Wyman (R) WV Natalie Tennant (D) WI Doug La Follette (D) WY Ed Murray (R) DC Lauren Vaughan (D) Territories: AS Lemanu Mauga (D) GU Ray Tenorio (R) MP Ralph Torres (R) PR Víctor Suárez-Meléndez (D) VI Osbert Potter (I)

Political party affiliations: 30 Republican 25 Democratic 1 Independent italics indicate no secretary of state in this state, closest equivalent listed

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