The Secretary of State of Wisconsin is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Wisconsin, and is second (behind the Lieutenant Governor) in the line of succession to the office of Governor of Wisconsin. Twenty-nine individuals have held the office of Secretary of State, two of whom have held non-consecutive terms. The incumbent is Sarah Godlewski, who was appointed by Governor Tony Evers on March 17, 2023 to replace long-time Secretary of State Doug La Follette.
Election and term of office
The Secretary of State is elected on Election Day in November, and takes office on the first Monday of the next January. Originally, the Secretary of State's term lasted for two years; since a 1967 amendment, however, the term has lasted four years. There is no limit to the number of terms a Secretary of State may hold.
In the event of a vacancy in the office of the Secretary of State, the Governor may appoint a replacement to serve the balance of the term; this has occurred three times: upon the death of Fred R. Zimmerman, Louis Allis was appointed to fill the remainder of the term, Glenn Wise was appointed to fill the entire of the next term to which Zimmerman had been elected, and upon the retirement of Douglas La Follette, Sarah Godlewski was appointed to fill the remainder of the term , January 2027. She is now the third woman to hold the state office.
The Secretary of State may be removed from office through an impeachment trial. They may also choose to resign from office. No Secretary of State has ever been impeached. Only one Secretary of State has resigned, when Douglas La Follette retired on March 17, 2023.
Powers and duties
Chief clerk of state government
The Secretary of State is charged by the state constitution with recording the official acts of the Legislature and Governor and making such records available for public inspection whenever required by either house of the Legislature. The state constitution likewise directs the Secretary of State to keep the Great Seal and use it to authenticate the Governor's official acts, other than bills signed into law. In this capacity as the chief clerk of state government, the Secretary of State files, certifies, or issues an array of legally, commercially, and historically significant public records, including: The original and enrolled laws and resolutions of the Legislature; Executive orders, pardons, proclamations, extraditions, and commissions granted by the Governor; The official oaths and bonds of state legislators, judges, and the principal officers of state agencies, whether elected or appointed; All political appointments made to each legislative, administrative and judicial agency; All deeds, conveyances, abstracts of tile, options and leases of state lands; The signatures and impressions of the official seal of the county clerks and registers of deeds in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties; Apostilles and authentications of notarial acts and other official documents deposited in his or her office; and Unless otherwise directed by law, all bonds, mortgages, and other securities, for money, for which the State of Wisconsin is a party.
Other responsibilities
Aside from these functional responsibilities, the Secretary of State is an ex officio member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Moreover, the Secretary of State is second in the order of succession to the office of Governor; under the current terms of the constitution, if the Governor dies, resigns or is removed from office and the office of the Lieutenant Governor is vacant, the Secretary of State becomes Governor, whereas in the vacancy of the office of Lieutenant Governor and the absence from the state, impeachment or inability to serve due to illness on the part of the Governor, the Secretary of State merely becomes Acting Governor. These terms came into effect with an amendment to the constitution in 1979; originally, in all of these events, the Secretary of State simply became Acting Governor. While Secretaries of State have at times briefly acted as Governor, none has ever become Governor, or acted as Governor in circumstances that would have caused him or her to become Governor had the 1979 amendment been in effect at the time.