SPEAKER
Posted by Robert Homann
Harvey Clark introduced our speaker, Michele Reagan, Arizona Secretary of State. Michele served 10 years in both the House and the Senate before being elected Secretary of State in 2014.
Michele explained what the S.O.S. does. Arizona is one of three states without a Lieutenant Governor. In the event the Governor was unable to perform his/her duties, the S.O.S would become the Acting Governor until a new Governor was elected. This is what Jan Bruer did when Janet Napolitano took a cabinet position in Washington.
The S.O.S. is the chief elections officer of the state. She reminded us of four upcoming elections:
March 22 - Presidential Preference Election
May 17 - Special Election on Proposition 123 concerning education funding
August 30 - Primary Election
November 8 - General Election
As Chief Elections Officer, Michele has worked hard to improve the transparency of political contributions. Her office has developed a web-based platform that will allow anyone to track the source of donations for any candidate. She also has staff members who focus on improving voter registration and participation.
One of her goals was to improve and update the S.O.S. technology systems. They have developed a new easy-to-use home page (www.AZSOS.gov) and a new elections portal (www.Arizona.vote).
The S.O.S. is in charge of the state library, the state archives and the Capitol museum.
The biggest division is the Business Services Division that handles Trade Names and Trade Marks. They process 7,000 applications a month or 250 a day.