Illinois Secretary of State

The Secretary of State, in accordance with the state constitution, is keeper of the official acts of the General Assembly, the official records of the executive branch, and the Great Seal of Illinois.[1] These duties have remained unchanged since Illinois became a U.S. state in 1818.[2] The office also registers corporations and lobbyists, commissions notaries public, and regulates the securities industry, among connected responsibilities.[3][4][5]

The Secretary of State performs other duties prescribed by law. For instance, the Secretary oversees the state archives and the state library. The State Archives serves as the official depository of state agency and local government records that possess administrative, legal, or historic research value.[6] The State Library houses more than 5,000,000 items, and other informational resources, and oversees a consortium of academic and regional libraries in the state.[7] In addition, the Secretary is the custodian of the Illinois State Capitol and all state buildings.[8]

By statute, the Illinois Secretary of State is also tasked with issuing licenses to Illinois drivers and registering motor vehicles operated in the state, effectively making the Secretary of State's office the department of motor vehicles, though that phrase is not used in Illinois.[9][10] Enforcement of these duties has made the Secretary of State's office a key bureau in the enforcement of laws against driving under the influence.[11] Illinois is one of only three states to put the secretary of state in charge of driver services, the other two being Maine and Michigan.

The Secretary of State is third (behind the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, respectively) in the line of succession to the office of Governor of Illinois.[12][13]

The Secretary of State's office occupies three buildings of the Illinois State Capitol Complex in Springfield. Many of the Secretary of State's workers assigned to motor vehicle and licensing duties work in the Howlett Building, south of the Capitol. The Howlett Building is named after former Secretary of State Michael Howlett. The State Archives are housed in the Norton Building, southwest of the Capitol. The Illinois State Library is located in the Brooks Library, east of the Capitol, which is named for longtime state Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1950.

In addition, the Secretary of State operates 136 Driver Services license-issuing facilities statewide and maintains its own police force. Established in 1913, their duties include enforcement of the Illinois Vehicle Code on businesses regulated by the Secretary of State and maintaining public safety, traffic control and assisting other law enforcement agencies.

The Secretary of State, to be eligible to take the oath of office, must be a United States citizen of at least 25 years of age, and a resident of Illinois for at least three years preceding the election.

On January 9, 2023, Jesse White, a Democrat, completed his sixth term as the 37th Secretary of State, the first African-American in the position and by far longest-serving Secretary in Illinois history. Before being elected Secretary of State in November 1998, White had been an elected office-holder from Chicago since 1974. White, who decided to retire at the end of his sixth term at the age of 88, was succeeded by Alexi Giannoulias, who won the 2022 election and became the 38th Secretary.

The Secretary of State before White was George Ryan, a Republican from Kankakee, Illinois. He held the office from 1991 to 1999, when he became Governor of Illinois. Ryan's tenure as Secretary of State led to his downfall in the "licenses for bribes" scandal: after a major automobile accident in Wisconsin that killed six children, investigators discovered that unqualified truck drivers were receiving drivers licenses in exchange for bribes. Ryan chose not to run for re-election in 2002, and in 2006, he was convicted of fraud, including using his authority as Secretary of State to end his office's internal investigation after it discovered the scheme.

This is a list of all the people who have served as Illinois Territorial Secretary[18] and people who have served as Illinois Secretary of State.[19]

#	Image	Name	Term	Party
1		Nathaniel Pope	1809-1816	Democratic-Republican
2		Joseph Phillips	1816–1818

#	Image	Name	Term	Party
1		Elias Kane	1818–1822	Democratic-Republican
2		Samuel D. Lockwood	1822–1823	Democratic-Republican
3		David Blackwell	1823–1824	Democratic-Republican
4		Morris Birkbeck	1824–1825	Democratic-Republican
5		George Forquer	1825–1828	Democratic-Republican
6		Alexander Pope Field	1829–1840	Democratic
7		Stephen A. Douglas	1840–1841	Democratic
8		Lyman Trumbull	1841–1843	Democratic
9		Thompson Campbell	1843–1846	Democratic
10		Horace S. Cooley	1846–1850	Democratic
11		David L. Gregg	1850–1853	Democratic
12		Alexander Starne	1853–1857	Democratic
13		Ozias M. Hatch	1857–1865	Republican
14		Sharon Tyndale	1865–1869	Republican
15		Edward Rummel	1869–1873	Republican
16		George H. Harlow	1873–1881	Republican
17		Henry D. Dement	1881–1889	Republican
18		Isaac N. Pearson	1889–1893	Republican
19		William H. Hinrichsen	1893–1897	Democratic
20		James A. Rose	1897–1912	Republican
21		Cornelius J. Doyle	1912–1913	Republican
22		Harry Woods	1913–1914	Democratic
23		Lewis Stevenson	1914–1917	Democratic
24		Louis Lincoln Emmerson	1917–1929	Republican
25		William J. Stratton	1929–1933	Republican
26		Edward J. Hughes	1933–1944	Democratic
27		Richard Yates Rowe	1944–1945	Republican
28		Edward J. Barrett	1945–1953	Democratic
29		Charles F. Carpentier	1953–1964	Republican
30		William H. Chamberlain	1964–1965	Democratic
31		Paul Powell	1965–1970	Democratic
32		John W. Lewis Jr.	1970–1973	Republican
33		Michael Howlett	1973–1977	Democratic
34		Alan J. Dixon	1977–1981	Democratic
35		Jim Edgar	1981–1991	Republican
36		George Ryan	1991–1999	Republican
37		Jesse White	1999–2023	Democratic
38		Alexi Giannoulias	2023–present	Democratic

The official motto of the state of Illinois is "State Sovereignty - National Union". The Illinois Secretary of State in 1867, Sharon Tyndale, as the keeper of the Great Seal of Illinois, had it re-engraved so that the word "sovereignty" was upside down. This 1867 seal redesign continues in use to this day, and can be seen, among other places, as the principal device on the flag of Illinois.

• Governor of Illinois
• Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
• Illinois Attorney General
• Comptroller of Illinois
• Treasurer of Illinois

• Official website