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Secretary of State of Illinois

elected political office in Illinois

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ3477292 ↗
Source-derived summary

The secretary of state of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of state in the United States. The Illinois secretary of state keeps the state records, laws, library, and archives, and is the state's corporation registration, vehicle registration and driver licensing authority. The current secretary of state is Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat who took office in 2023.

Powers and duties

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. These duties have remained unchanged since Illinois became a U.S. state in 1818. The secretary also registers corporations and lobbyists, commissions notaries public, and regulates the securities industry, among connected responsibilities.

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. 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.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Secretary of State of Illinois” as elected political office in Illinois. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2023, 1818—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1818. The account is most persuasive where Secretary, State and Illinois can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as elected political office in Illinois. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3477292. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023 and 1818.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Secretary of State of Illinois”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Secretary of State of Illinois primary sources, Secretary of State of Illinois archive and Secretary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Secretary of State of Illinois”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Secretary of State of Illinois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.