Secretary of State of Nevada - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Secretary of State of Nevada is a statewide elected office in the State of Nevada. 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...

post is common to many 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...

s. In Nevada, it is a constitutional office (i.e., it is mandated by the Constitution of Nevada

Constitution of Nevada

The Constitution of the State of Nevada is the organic law of the state of Nevada, and the basis for Nevada's statehood as one of the United States.-History:The Nevada Constitution was created in 1864 at a convention on July 4 in Carson City...

.

The current Secretary of State, Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

Ross Miller

Ross James Miller is an American politician of the Democratic Party and the current Secretary of State of Nevada. Elected at the age of 30, he was the youngest Secretary of State in the history of Nevada and the youngest Secretary of State in the country at the time of his election.-Education and...

, was elected in 2006. Miller was preceded by Dean Heller

Dean Heller

Dean A. Heller is the junior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Republican Party. Heller was appointed by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to a vacant seat created by the resignation of John Ensign. He was previously a member of the United States House of Representatives,...

, who served as Secretary of State from 1995 to 2006 and was subsequently elected to the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Organization

The Nevada Secretary of State's Office is composed of four divisions:

The Commercial Recordings Division has offices in Carson City
Carson City, Nevada
The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...

, Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

and Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

. It registers business organizations and keeps their documentation up to date. This division also registers 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, 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, service mark
Service mark
A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in some countries, notably the United States, to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used...

s, rights of publicity, and filings 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 Elections Division is located in the Capitol Building in Carson City. The Division certifies candidates, registers and files Candidate Contribution and Expenditure Reports, certifies ballot questions
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

, supervises 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 reports and certifies the results of state primary and general elections. The Division also administers the state's Confidential Address 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...

for victims of domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...

.
The Notary Division of the Secretary of State's office is responsible for appointing, training, and disciplining the 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...

within the state of Nevada. The Division is also charged with administering the state's digital signature
Digital signature
A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...

laws and with notarizing apostilles. The Division is located in Carson City.
The Securities Division is located in Las Vegas, with a satellite office in Reno. The Securities Division is charged with the regulation of the state's securities industry
Securities regulation in the United States
Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers various aspects of transactions and other dealings with securities...

. The Division licenses individuals who sell securities, registers securities offerings, and enforces the civil and criminal provisions of the state's securities laws. The Securities Division also is tasked with licensing 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, pursuant to the Athletes Agent Act of 2001.

Other duties

The Secretary of State acts as the official record-keeper of the state of Nevada, and is the keeper of the State Seal of Nevada

Seal of Nevada

The Great Seal of the State of Nevada is derived from the Seal of the Territory of Nevada. As Nevada prepared for statehood in 1864, its Constitutional Convention began to formalize the features of the state's official seal. Nevada was admitted as a state on October 31, 1864 by proclamation of...

. The Secretary also maintains the official bond of the state treasurer, and serves on the State Board of Prison Commissioners, the State Board of Examiners, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board, the State Records Committee, the State Advisory Committee on Participatory Democracy and the Executive Branch Audit Committee.

The Secretary also maintains the state's registry of living will

Living will

An advance health care directive, also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, or advance decision, are instructions given by individuals specifying what actions should be taken for their health in the event that they are no longer able to make decisions due to illness or...

s and advance medical directives, and maintains a list of ministers and clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

in the state.

Additional

In 2004, under the leadership of then Secretary of State Dean Heller

Dean Heller

, Nevada became the first state in the nation to implement an auditable paper trail to electronic voting machines.

List of Secretaries of State

{|class="wikitable"
! # !! Secretary of State !! colspan="2"| Party !! Term start !! Term end
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|1
|Chauncey Noteware
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

|1864
|1871
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|2
|James Minor
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1871
|1879
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|3
|Jasper Babcock
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1879
|1883
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|4
|John Dormer
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1883
|1891
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|5
|Oscar Grey
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1891
|1895
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|6
|Eugene Howell
|style="background: ;"|
|Silver
|1895
|1903
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|7
|William "Gib" Douglass
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1903
|1911
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|8
|George Brodigan
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1911
|1923
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|9
|William G. Greathouse
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1923
|1937
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|10
|Malcolm McEachin
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1937
|1947
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|11
|John Koontz
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1947
|1973
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|12
|William D. Swackhamer
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1973
|1987
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|13
|Frankie Sue Del Papa
|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|1987
|1991
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|14
|Cheryl Lau
|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1991
|1995
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|15
|Dean Heller

Dean Heller

|style="background: ;"|
|Republican

Republican Party (United States)

|1995
|2006
|-
|style="text-align:center;"|16
|Ross Miller

Ross Miller

|style="background: ;"|
|Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

|2006
|Incumbent
|-

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