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

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...

 of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. The office actually predates the statehood of Alabama, dating back to the Alabama Territory

Alabama Territory

The Territory of Alabama was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 15, 1817, until December 14, 1819, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama.-History:...

. From 1819 to 1901, the Secretary of State

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...

 served a two-year term until the State Constitution was changed to set the term to four years. Up until 1868 the Secretary of State was elected by the Alabama Legislature

Alabama Legislature

The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members...

, but is now popularly elected. The terms and duties of the office are defined by Sections 114, 118, 132, and 134 of the Alabama Constitution

Alabama Constitution

The Constitution of the State of Alabama is the basic governing document of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was adopted in 1901 and is the sixth constitution that the state has had....

.

The secretary of state must be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, an Alabama state resident for at least five years, and a registered voter. The secretary of state and governor are on the same election cycle, and may only serve two consecutive terms; to hold the office for more terms, the office must be vacated for at least one term. The governor may appoint a replacement secretary of state in the case of resignation or death.

Organization

The Secretary of State's Office is organized as follows:

• The Business Services Section of the Secretary of State's office is divided into three divisions: Corporation
  Corporation
  A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
  
  s, 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...
  
   matters, and Trademark
  Trademark
  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.
• The Elections Division administers election
  Election
  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 and 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...
  
   laws, including the preparation of ballot
  Ballot
  A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
  
  s and implementation of state and federal election law
  Election law
  Election law is a discipline falling at the juncture of constitutional law and political science. It researches "the politics of law and the law of politics"...
  
  s (such as the Help America Vote Act
  Help America Vote Act
  The Help America Vote Act , or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002. Drafted in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S...
  
  ).
• The Administrative Services Division licenses 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, notaries public
  Notary public
  A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
  
  , and Civil Law Notaries
  Civil law notary
  Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
  
  . This division is also responsible for the issuance of apostilles and other document certifications.
• The Government Records Section is responsible for maintenance of legislative and other government records, including land titles. The state holds land titles going back to the date of statehood.

Officeholders

The current Secretary of State is Republican Beth Chapman

Beth Chapman (politician)

Beth Killough Chapman . is an American politician from Alabama. A member of the Republican Party, she is currently the state's 51st secretary of state.-Personal:...

. She was re-elected in 2010 with 62% of the vote. She received just over 900,000 votes and a margin of 356,000 votes over her Democrat opponent. Prior to her election as Secretary of State in 2006, she held office as State Auditor of Alabama for one term.

The parties are as follows: (D) and (R), or .

Alabama secretaries of state
#	Name	Term	Party
1	Henry Hitchcock Henry Hitchcock Henry Hitchcock was the first Attorney General of Alabama, having been elected by the Alabama General Assembly in December 1819 in its initial session...	1818–1819
2	Thomas A. Rodgers	1819–1821
3	James J. Pleasants	1821–1824
4	James I. Thornton	1824–1834
5	Edmund A. Webster	1834–1836
6	Thomas B. Tunstall	1836–1840
7	William Garrett William Garrett William Garrett may refer to:* William Garrett, co-writer of "Please Mr. Postman"* William Garrett , American Civil War veteran, see List of American Civil War Medal of Honor recipients: G–L...	1840–1852
8	Vincent M. Benham	1852–1856
9	James H. Weaver	1856–1860
10	Patrick Henry Brittan Patrick Henry Brittan General Patrick Henry Brittan was born in Thornton Gap, Virginia on September 21, 1815.-Biography:He learned printing in Washington, D.C. and then migrated to Columbus, Georgia in 1839 to practice his trade. He married Ora Williams of Morgan County, Georgia in that same year. They would have nine...	1860–1865
11	Albert Stanhope Elmore1	1865–1866
12	David D. Dalton	1866–1867
13	Micah Taul	1867–1868
14	Charles A. Miller	1868–1870	Republican
15	Jabez J. Parker	1870–1872	Republican
16	Patrick Ragland	1872–1873	Republican
17	Neander H. Rice	1865–1866
18	Rufus King Boyd	1874–1878	Democrat
19	William W. Screws	1878–1882	Democrat
20	Ellis Phelan	1882–1885	Democrat
21	Charles C. Langdon	1885–1890	Democrat
22	Joseph D. Barron Joseph D. Barron Joseph Day Barron was a editorial writer, legislator, and Secretary of State of Alabama.Born in Upson County, Georgia, he was the son of Hiram and Pheriby Barron....	1890–1894	Democrat
23	James K. Jackson	1894–1898	Democrat
24	Robert P. McDavid	1898–1903	Democrat
25	J. Thomas Heflin J. Thomas Heflin James Thomas Heflin , nicknamed "Cotton Tom", was a leading proponent of white supremacy, most notably as a United States Senator from Alabama.-Biography:...	1903–1904	Democrat
26	Edmund R. McDavid	1904–1907	Democrat
27	Frank N. Julian	1907–1910	Democrat
28	Cyrus B. Brown	1910–1915	Democrat
29	John Purifoy	1915–1919	Democrat
30	Willam Peyton Cobb	1919–1923	Democrat
31	Sidney Herbert Blan	1923–1927	Democrat
32	John Marvin Brandon	1927–1931	Democrat
33	Pete Bryant Jarman, Jr.	1931–1935	Democrat
34	David Howell Turner	1935–1939	Democrat
35	John Marvin Brandon	1939–1943	Democrat
36	David Howell Turner	1943–1944	Democrat
37	Sibyl Pool	1944–1951	Democrat
38	Agnes Baggett	1951–1955	Democrat
39	Mary Texas Hurt Garner	1955–1959	Democrat
40	Bettye Frink	1959–1963	Democrat
41	Agnes Baggett	1963–1967	Democrat
42	Mabel Sanders Amos	1967–1975	Democrat
43	Agnes Baggett	1975–1979	Democrat
44	Don Siegelman Don Siegelman Don Eugene Siegelman is an American Democratic Party politician who held numerous offices in Alabama. He was the 51st Governor of Alabama for one term from 1999 to 2003...	1979–1987	Democrat
45	Glen Browder Glen Browder John Glen Browder is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama's 3rd congressional district. Browder was born in Sumter, South Carolina and graduated from Edmunds High School in 1961. He attended Presbyterian College, receiving a B.A. in history in 1965. He went on...	1987–1989	Democrat
46	Fred Crawford	1989–1989	Republican
47	Perry A. Hand	1989–1991	Republican
48	Billy Joe Camp Billy Joe Camp Billy Joe Camp was elected Alabama's 48th secretary of state in November 1990 and served from January 1991 until 1993.A Democrat, he had previously served as a commissioner on the Alabama Public Service Commission and as a gubernatorial press secretary as well as State Development Officer...	1991–1993	Democrat
49	James R. Bennett James R. Bennett James R. "Jim" Bennett is a Republican politician from Alabama.He served as secretary of state of Alabama, having been appointed to fill a vacancy in 1993 and subsequently elected to two terms in his own right in 1994, as a Democrat, and 1998, as a Republican...	1993–2003	Republican
50	Nancy Worley Nancy Worley Nancy Worley is an American Democratic politician.Worley was born in New Hope, Alabama. She served as Alabama Secretary of State from 2003 to 2007. In the 2006 general election, she was defeated for re-election by then-State Auditor Beth Chapman.Worley received a B.A. degree from the University of...	2003–2007	Democratic
51	Beth Chapman Beth Chapman (politician) Beth Killough Chapman . is an American politician from Alabama. A member of the Republican Party, she is currently the state's 51st secretary of state.-Personal:...	2007–present	Republican

Notes:
1. First native-born Alabamian to serve as Secretary of State.