Secretary of State of New Mexico
The Secretary of State of New Mexico is one of the constitutional offices of the State of New Mexico .
The office was created in 1912 with a five-year term. The incumbent is elected by the eligible population of New Mexico. At the elections in 1916, the term of office was reduced to two years with the possibility of one re-election. The term of office was then extended to four years for the elections in 1970. Re-election was not possible. Another change was made for the 1990 elections. The term of office remained at four years. For this, the possibility of a one-time re-election was granted. For the elections in 2010, the possibility of one-time re-election was abolished.
The current Secretary of State of New Mexico is Maggie Toulouse Oliver , who took up her post on January 1, 2016.
Duties and duties
When the governor and lieutenant governor are out of state, the Secretary of State acts as acting governor. The Secretary of State is the custodian of the great seal of the State of New Mexico and puts stamps on all instructions issued on behalf of the Office of the Governor.
At the beginning of each new legislative term, the Secretary of State appoints the New Mexico House of Representatives and chairs it until a new Speaker of the House is elected. In addition to these duties, the Secretary of State is in charge of the Office of the Secretary of State. The main task is that of the state principal returning officer.
The Secretary of State oversees the entire electoral process, which includes maintaining a computerized listing of all registered voters in the state, checking and evaluating voting machines, and providing certified, precise district maps. With the passage of the 1993 Governmental Conduct Act , the agency assumed the role of the state ethics authority. The tasks include regulating lobbying activities and reporting on election campaign funding by candidates for public offices and political action committees, the mandatory filing of financial information by candidates and government officials including the submission of a general code of conduct for employees under their supervision by each elected executive officer and the Legislative Council.
The Secretary of State maintains New Mexico trade and industry records. Trademarks for goods and services used in New Mexico must be registered with the Office of the Secretary of State. Uniform Commercial Codes (UCC) and the records of loans made by financial institutions against collateral must be reported to the Secretary of State. Anyone wishing to work as a notary must register with the Office of the Secretary of State.
Online access at the Office of the Secretary of State includes the following services (as of September 2017):
- Filing records of loans made against loan collateral by financial institutions.
- Filing records of Uniform Commercial Codes.
- List of all registered lobbyists.
Online access is to be expanded in the future to include additional election and trade databases.
The Secretary of State is ex officio on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) and Board Member of State Records and Archives.
Other duties of the Secretary of State are as follows:
- Keeping legal journals, and keeping records of all bills passed by the New Mexico Legislature and signed by the New Mexico Governor.
- Preservation of records and files on referendums that were signed by designated voters as a result of their disapproval of the laws passed during the last previous legislative period.
- Ensure, prior to an election, that the proposed amendments to the New Mexico Constitution appear in at least one newspaper in each New Mexico county in English and Spanish for four consecutive weeks (provided newspapers are published in both languages in such counties).
- Serves as the legal representative for service of suit in cases where the designated agent of a domestic or foreign entity doing business in the state dies, resigns, leaves the state, or cannot be found.
organization
The Office of the Secretary of State consists of the following divisions:
- Bureau of Election and Ethics Administration
- Business Services Division
- Finance / Human Resources Division
- Information Technology Division
Bureau of Election and Ethics Administration
The Bureau of Election and Ethics Administration provides daily guidance on voter education, the New Mexico Election Code, federal mandates, and government ethics for citizens, officials, and candidates to comply with federal and state law. As Chief Elections Officer , the Secretary of State must ensure election secrecy, free elections and protection against abuse of election franchises. The duties of the Secretary of State also include providing efficient administration and conducting elections while maintaining uniformity in the application, operation, and interpretation of the New Mexico Election Code and federal mandates.
The Office of the Secretary of State oversees all statewide elections to ensure consistency and compliance with state law. In all statewide elections, the Secretary of State is responsible for enforcing the Financial Disclosure Act, the Campaign Finance Act, and the Voter Action Act .
Business Services Division
The Business Services Division is responsible for the following:
- Farm Products Secured Interest Act
- Notary Public Act
- Public Utility Act
- Uniform Facsimile Signature of Public Officials Act
- Uniform Revised Limited Partnership Act
- Uniform Partnership Act
- Uniform Commercial Code-Secured Transactions
- State Conservancy Districts
- Trademark Act
- Representing serving subpoenas and complaints to (domestic and foreign corporations, domestic and foreign limited liability companies, non-resident motorists, unauthorized foreign insurance companies and non-residents under the Owner-Residents Relations Act)
- International Wills
- Registration of Trading Stamp Companies
- New Mexico governor filings of legal acts such as: bylaws, notices, reproductions and requisitions, pardons, appointments to boards and commissions, and compilation of the Governor's Executive Record and Certification of a Notary Public's Commission.
- Corporations
Finance / Human Resources Division
- Human Resources handles the recruiting and selection of employees, the qualification of the compensation payments, the instruction, the training, the services, the wage and employment relationship.
- Finance is responsible for all financial aspects of the agency, including budget preparation, contract monitoring, federal grant tracking, reporting, reimbursements, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the annual external audit.
Information Technology Division
The Information Technology Division is responsible for maintaining three business-critical application areas in the Office of the Secretary of State:
- Voter Registration and Election Management System (VREMS): The VREMS is the centralized voter registration database used by all 33 county clerks in the state. It contains the voter data and the chronicle, and generates all voter lists and the material, which are required for all city, county and state elections in the whole state.
- Campaign Finance Information System (CFIS): The CFIS is the financial reporting system that is used by all candidates, political action committees, lobbyists, lobbyists who are legally required to submit and disclose spending and donation information to maintain state transparency.
- Secretary of State's Knowledgebase (SOSKB): The SOSKB is used for the tracking of a variety of data important to government commerce, including partnership registrations, trademark registrations, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings, lawsuit service registrations and of agricultural lien entries.
List of the Secretaries of State of New Mexico
| # | Secretary of State | Term of office | Party affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio J. Lucero | 1912-1918 | democrat |
| 2 | Manuel Martínez | 1919-1922 | republican |
| 3 | Soledad C. Chacón | 1923-1926 | Democrat |
| 4th | Jennie Fortune | 1927-1928 | Democrat |
| 5 | EA Perrault | 1929-1930 | republican |
| 6th | Marguerite P. Baca | 1931-1934 | Democrat |
| 7th | Elizabeth F. Gonzales | 1935-1938 | Democrat |
| 8th | Jessie M. Gonzales | 1939-1942 | Democrat |
| 9 | Cecilia T. Cleveland | 1943-1946 | Democrat |
| 10 | Alicia Valdez Romero | 1947-1950 | Democrat |
| 11 | Beatrice Roach Gottlieb | 1951-1954 | Democrat |
| 12 | Natalie Smith Buck | 1955-1958 | Democrat |
| 13 | Betty Fiorina | 1959-1962 | Democrat |
| 14th | Alberta Miller | 1963-1966 | Democrat |
| 15th | Ernestine Durán Evans | 1967-1970 | Democrat |
| 16 | Betty Fiorina | 1971-1974 | Democrat |
| 17th | Ernestine Durán Evans | 1974-1988 | Democrat |
| 18th | Shirley Hooper | 1979-1982 | Democrat |
| 19th | Clara Padilla Jones | 1983-1986 | Democrat |
| 20th | Rebecca Vigil-Giron | 1987-1990 | Democrat |
| 21st | Stephanie Gonzales | 1991-1998 | Democrat |
| 22nd | Rebecca Vigil-Giron | 1999-2006 | Democrat |
| 23 | Mary Herrera | 2007-2010 | Democrat |
| 24 | Dianna Duran | 2011-2015 | Republican |
| - | Mary Quintana | 2015 | |
| 25th | Brad Winter | 2015-2016 | republican |
| 26th | Maggie Toulouse Oliver | since 2016 | Democrat |
literature
- List of the Secretaries of State of New Mexico (1912–2012) , Office of the NM Secretary of State, July 2012, p. 224
Individual evidence
- ^ List of the Secretaries of State of New Mexico (1912–2012) , Office of the NM Secretary of State, July 2012, p. 224
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Duties of the Secretary of State , Secretary of State of New Mexico
- ^ Divisions of Secretary of State's Office , Secretary of State of New Mexico
