Kansas Secretary of State

Secretary of State of the State of Kansas
Seal of the Secretary of State of Kansas
Incumbent Kris Kobach since January 10, 2011
Inaugural holder	John Winter Robinson
Website	kssos.org

The Secretary of State of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas.

The first Secretary of State for Kansas was John Winter Robinson, a physician originally from Litchfield, Maine, but who had settled in Manhattan, Kansas in 1857. Robinson was elected in December 1859, in anticipation of statehood for Kansas, and sworn in after Kansas was admitted to the Union in February 1861.

As a result of a bond scandal, Secretary Robinson was impeached on February 26, 1862, along with Governor Charles L. Robinson and State Auditor George S. Hillyer. Secretary Robinson was convicted by the Kansas Senate on June 12, 1862, and removed from his office, becoming the first state executive branch official to be impeached and removed from office in U.S. history. Hillyer was also removed from office, on June 16, but Governor Robinson was acquitted. Sanders R. Shepard succeeded to the job of Secretary of State on July 28, 1862.

In 2015, Secretary Kris Kobach requested and was granted by the Kansas Legislature prosecutorial power in voter fraud cases. In October of that year, he filed his first three-vote fraud cases dealing with voting in two states.

The Secretary of State is the chief elections officer of the state, administering elections and voter registration throughout the state. The office also receives campaign finance reports and registers lobbyists. The duty of regulating lobbying and campaign finance is shared with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. The Secretary was granted by the Kansas Legislature prosecutorial power in voter fraud cases and is the first and only Secretary of state to hold that power.

The Secretary operates the Business Filing Center, which registers business entities, trademarks, trade names, and liens made pursuant to the Uniform Commercial Code.