Nevada Secretary of State

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The Nevada Secretary of State is the third highest ranking state official, behind the governor and lieutenant governor. The secretary of state, elected to a four-year terms. The office is responsible for maintaining the official records of the acts of the state legislature and of the executive branch of of the Nevada government.

The current officeholder is Ross Miller.

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. 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 wills and advance medical directives, and maintains a list of ministers and clergy in the state.

Divisions

The secretary of state is organized into four divisions: Commercial recordings, Elections, Notary and Securities.

  • Commercial Recordings: is responsible for accepting, filing, and providing public access to organizational documents of business entities. This department is also in charge of the Commercial Recordings Division which registers trade names, trademarks, service marks, and rights of publicity.
  • Elections Division: certifies candidates, registers and files campaign finance reports, certifies ballot questions, supervises elections, and reports and certifies primary and general elections. This Division also administers the Confidential Address Program for victims of domestic violence.
  • Notaries Division: this office is responsible for appointing, training Notaries Public serving in Nevada. The division is also responsible for administering the state's digital signature laws.
  • Securities Division: licenses individuals that sell securities, registers securities offerings, and enforces the civil and criminal provisions of the state security laws. It also licenses sport agents.

Role in the initiative process

Before a petition may be circulated in Nevada it must first be submitted to the secretary of state. The ballot description must abide by the petition guidelines and consist of a 200 words or less description.

Signature Verification

After a petition has been circulated, signatures and all other documents relating to the petition should be submitted to the County Clerk in the respective county in which the petition was circulated.

The County Clerk will do a raw count of all the signatures and forward the number to the secretary of state within 4 days. If the raw count returns at 100% of signatures required to qualify a ballot then the Secretary of State will notify the County Clerk to verify the rest of the signatures.

If more than 500 signatures have been submitted, the County Clerk will verify 500 or 5% (whichever is greater) signatures. A sponsor of the petition is allowed to witness the verification process. Upon the competition of this process the County Clerk forward the petition and certificate of the signature results to the Secretary of State. The County Clerk will also notify the secretary of names that wrote in to be removed from the petition at this time. The entire process must be completed within 9 days after the initial notification.

If the random sampling of signatures has between 90% or greater, but less than 100% the secretary of state will have the County Clerk reexamine the signatures for verification. This means that each signature must be re-verified within 12 days after receiving the order from the secretary of state.

Ballot Question

Once the initiative is qualified for the ballot, the secretary of state must draft the ballot as question. Upon consultation with the Nevada attorney general the secretary will write the ballot as a question and a short summary of the ballot. The office is also obligated to determined the fiscal impact of the measure with Fiscal Analysis division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. The Secretary then assigns the ballot question a number for the General Election Ballot.

Ballot Summary

The secretary of state may reject any arguments found to be libelous or factually inaccurate. The office also may make arguments more clear and concise as long as the message of the argument is not altered.

Appealing the Secretary of State

  • Proponents of a ballot may challenge the Secretary of State within 5 working days after receipt of signature sufficiency is filed.
  • Committees may appeal the reject of a statement by the Secretary of State within 5 days of the rejection to the First Judicial Court. No later than 3 days after the complaint is filed will the Court rule on the matter.

Contact information

Secretary of State
Nevada State Capitol Building
101 North Carson Street, Suite 3
Carson City, NV 89701
Phone:775-684-5708
Fax:775-684-5725
Email:sosmail@sos.nv.gov

See also

External links

References

Portions of this article were adapted from Wikipedia.

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