Kansas Secretary of State

Description

The Secretary of State for Kansas is one of four statewide constitutional offices in Kansas. The secretary of state is publicly elected every four years. The office is responsible for overseeing the administration of all state and federal elections in the state. The secretary of state is the chief elections 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. 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. The salary for this position is $86,003/year.

Application Guidelines

1) Contact the Office of the Kansas Secretary of State to confirm that your registered address qualifies you for the position you intend to run for, and that you meet other office specific qualifications. Obtain the required filing forms. Candidate nominating petitions are also available online here: http://www.kssos.org/forms/elections/PP.pdf. 2) Complete the required filing forms and submit the filing forms to the Office of the Kansas Secretary of State. The required forms include campaign finance forms, nominating petitions and other office specific forms. The number of petition signatures required to qualify as an independent candidate on the ballot is equal to 4% of the registered voters in the district subject to the petition containing no less than 25 but no more than 5,000 signatures. 3) To run as an independent, the petitions must be filed by the day before the primary election in order to appear on the ballot. The primary election is always held on the first Tuesday in August. If you plan to run as a candidate for one of the established political parties, contact the Office of the Kansas Secretary of State or the party office for the filing window and procedures necessary to compete in the party primary. The deadline to file as a party candidate is June 1st. If you have any questions please contact the Office of the Kansas Secretary of State by phone at (785) 296-4561. Additionally, more 2016 Candidate Filing Information can be found here: https://www.kssos.org/elections/16elec/2016_Candidate_Filing_Information.pdf.