10 FILINGS AND REGISTRATIONS PROGRAM

The Filings and Registrations Program includes acitivities related to:

Business Entities file articles of incorporation, foreign qualifications, and related documents to ensure that corporations and other business entities are properly formed, merged, amended, and dissolved in compliance with California law.

The Uniform Commercial Code provides for the filing of documents that allow lending institutions to verify the existence of collateral prior to making loans and to establish a priority scheme for property repossession in case of debtor default or bankruptcy.

Notary Public and Special Filings appoint Notary Publics to perform a variety of official transactions necessary to fulfill personal and business needs throughout the State. Applicants are investigated for administrative, civil, or criminal law violations. The Domestic Partnership Program registers domestic partners, which provides domestic partnerships legal standing and secures and protects specific rights and responsibilities.

The Safe at Home Program provides public records address protection, name change confidentiality, and confidential voter registration for more than 2,000 survivors of domestic violence and stalking and their family members, and providers, employees, volunteers, and patients of reproductive health care facilities.

20 ELECTIONS

The Secretary of State, as California's chief election officer, has broad responsibility to administer the election process. This program oversees the modernization of voting equipment and the improvement of current electoral database systems, make all polling places accessible, enhance provisional voting processes, provide alternative language accessibility, increase voters' education of the electoral system, establish a complaint procedure, and increase the education and training of elections officials, including poll workers.

This program includes the campaign and lobbying registration and disclosure provisions of the Political Reform Act of 1974. Under this law, the Agency registers all levels of campaign committees, and reviews for compliance with statutory requirements all state-level campaign recipient, major donor, slate mailer, political party, and independent expenditure committees. The program also registers lobbyists, lobbying firms and lobbyist employers, reviews the periodic financial disclosure reports filed by lobbying entities, and publishes a Directory of Lobbyists, Lobbying Firms and Lobbyist Employers, both on paper and on the Internet. This program also supports the electronic filing requirements of the Political Reform Act and posts relevant registration and disclosure information to the division's web site so voters can track where campaign money is raised and spent and what lobbying activity is occurring in state government. A searchable database of campaign and lobbying financial activity is also provided through the web site.

30 ARCHIVES

The California State Archives acquires, indexes, preserves, and provides reference access to irreplaceable historic materials from the three branches of state government. The Archives acquires records that are legally required to be placed there, that possess legal, administrative or evidentiary value, or that have long-term historical significance. Materials of durable value are transferred to the Archives for long-term preservation.

50 ADMINISTRATION AND TECHNOLOGY

This program develops and manages overall departmental policy. It serves as the liaison to other state agencies, the Legislature, the federal government, and other states' Secretaries of State. This office responds to constituent correspondence and requests from the public and advocates in the Legislature, administers the Secretary's role as ex officio member of the World Trade Commission, as a member of the National Association of Secretaries of State, management of task forces and advisory committees, implementation of new federal and state statutory requirements, and coordinates and disseminates information about the Agency and its initiatives to the public. It also provides the Agency with the necessary personnel, general administrative, budgeting, fiscal services, and information technology expertise to plan, develop, implement, and operate innovative and effective business and information systems solutions.