The secretary of state of Colorado is the secretary of state of the

state of Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

in the United States. The office is one of five elected

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

offices in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. The current secretary of state is Democrat

Jena Griswold Jena Marie Griswold (born October 2, 1984) is an American attorney and politician from the state of Colorado. A Democrat, she is the 39th Colorado Secretary of State, serving since January 8, 2019. Early life and career Griswold was born in T ...

Structure

The Secretary of State heads the Colorado Department of State, a principal department of the Colorado state government, which is composed of four divisions: *Business & Licensing Division: Files documents for certain

business organizations A business entity is an entity that is formed and administered as per corporate law in order to engage in business activities, charitable work, or other activities allowable. Most often, business entities are formed to sell a product or a servi ...

and business names; files

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

s for certain business entities; registers

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from ot ...

s, and files financing statements and notices of security interests in agricultural products pursuant to the

Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of Uniform Acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...

, federal

tax lien A tax lien is a lien which is imposed upon a property by law in order to secure the payment of taxes. A tax lien may be imposed for the purpose of collecting delinquent taxes which are owed on real property or personal property, or it may be ...

s; and other miscellaneous statutory

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the per ...

s; performs searches of those records; provides copies of filed documents; issues related certificates; and provides pertinent educational services. Issues bingo/

raffle A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...

licenses and inspects facilities and operations of these games to ensure compliance with bingo/raffle laws; commissions and regulates notaries public; registers

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ...

s that solicit contributions in Colorado and their professional fundraisers; publishes the Colorado administrative rules code and register, and provides

rulemaking In administrative law, rulemaking is the process that executive and independent agencies use to create, or ''promulgate'', regulations. In general, legislatures first set broad policy mandates by passing statutes, then agencies create more deta ...

guidance for state agencies. *Elections Division: Supervises elections, maintains the statewide

voter registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The r ...

file, verifies

initiative In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a ...

petition signatures, and administers the

campaign finance Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political a ...

laws; and serves as the filing office for unincorporated communities and for

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

disclosure statements. *Administration Division: Provides management and central support services for the Department of State such as

budgeting A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environme ...

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

, and

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms includ ...

; monitors the use of the state seal,History and Usage of the Colorado State Seal
certifies the interest rate on appealed money

judgments Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotl ...

, files acts passed by the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...

, and conveys information within the office to the public; plans and monitors legislation that affects the Department of State; responds to inquiries from the press and public; licenses entities that circulate petitions; and registers

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

s. *Information Technology Division: Supports the

information systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people ...

needs of the entire secretary of state's office. Maintains the departmental infrastructure consisting of multiple servers, personal computers, networking equipment, firewall, telephony, peripherals, and other information technology equipment to support the data and imaging needs of the department. Also supports the web presence of the secretary of state.

List of secretaries of state of Colorado

References

External links

Official website
{{Colorado statewide elected officials 1861 establishments in Colorado Territory

Structure

List of secretaries of state of Colorado

See also

References

External links