Duties and Responsibilities

The secretary of state supervises the administration of election laws, approves ballot language, reviews statewide initiative and referendum petitions, chairs the Ohio Ballot Board, which approves ballot language for statewide issues, canvasses votes for all elective state offices and issues; investigates election fraud and irregularities, trains election officials and reimburses counties for poll worker training costs.

The Elections Division compiles and maintains election statistics, political party records and other election-related records. Statewide candidates, campaign finance reports are filed with the office, together with the reports for state political action committees (PACs), state political parties and legislative caucus campaign committees.

The secretary of state's office also licenses ministers to perform marriage, registers non-resident alien land, and issues apostilles, which are certifications verifying signatures on documents to be used outside of the United States.

All laws passed by the Ohio General Assembly, municipal charters, administrative rules adopted by agencies, and all executive orders issued by the governor are filed with the secretary of state's office, as well.

Granting Authority to Do Business in Ohio
The Business Services Division receives and approves articles of incorporation for Ohio corporations and grants licenses to out-of-state corporations seeking to do business in Ohio. Limited partnerships and limited liability companies also file with the secretary of state's office.

The Corporations Section of the Business Services Division also approves amendments to filed documents, mergers; consolidations and dissolutions, and registers trade marks, trade names, service marks and fictitious names.

The section approves and keeps a registry of business names, names and addresses of statutory agents, incorporators' names, corporations' charter numbers, dates of incorporation, and the number of authorized shares per corporation.

Copies of corporate documents for existing businesses may be purchased by calling (614) 466-2585.

Additionally, a free copy of the Guide to Organizing a Business in Ohio, Legal Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations, or the Guide to Registering Your Trademark or Service Mark in Ohio, may be requested by calling (614) 466-3910 or by e-mail at prequest@sos.state.oh.us.

Documenting Secured Commercial Transactions
Secured parties file financing statements in the Uniform Commercial Code section of the Business Services Division to claim an interest in collateral used for a loan and to have the claim indexed for public notice.

Copies of information on file are available for purchase, including names and addresses of the debtors and the secured parties and a general description of the property being used for collateral.

For a free publication that outlines statutory filing requirements or for filing information, please call (614) 466-3613.

Apportionment Board
The secretary of state is a member of the Ohio Apportionment Board, which meets every 10 years following the decennial census. The five-member board redraws boundaries for each of the 99 Ohio House and 33 Ohio Senate districts to reflect population changes. Other members of the Apportionment Board are the governor, the auditor of state and two members, one Republican and one Democrat, appointed by state legislative leaders.

Public Access to Documents
The secretary of state's office provides public access to a wide variety of corporate, uniform commercial code, election and campaign finance records and documents.

The documents may be accessed through the secretary of state's Web site.  Additionally, the office provides computer terminals for public access to the records.  The computer terminals are located at the Client Service Center (see Directions & Locations) for details.  Both locations are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Corporation and uniform commercial code information can be purchased in the form of compact discs, computer-printed lists and labels (for corporation information only).

Lists of registered voters, historical and current candidate elections results, and campaign finance records are available for purchase on computer printouts.

Please call (614) 466-2585 for information on document availability.