When Candice Miller was elected Michigan's Secretary of State in 1994, she became the first woman to ever head the state's oldest department, charged with administering the state's motor vehicle operation and overseeing all statewide elections. She was elected to a second term in 1998 and then elected to Congress.

Apparently, Michigan voters liked having a woman at the helm of the department, because in 2002 they elected Terri Lynn Land as Michigan's 41st Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State is elected to a four-year term. But there are those in state government who say the job is so demanding that it takes at least one term to learn how to handle the state's oldest agency, one that deals with more Michigan residents every year than any other branch of state government.

With more than 1,800 employees and some 152 offices statewide, the department is one of the biggest in the state. The Secretary of State also operates a mobile office that travels to underserved areas like college campuses and also has an extensive array of Web-based services available.

The department collects nearly $2 billion in revenue annually in the forms of fees and other charges for a multitude of services. The law requires that those monies be used for a variety of other purposes, not simply administering the department.

The office is one of the most technologically advanced of any of the state's departments, a goal actually set forth in the department's mission statement.

Duties of the Secretary of State

This list is by no mean comprehensive―it's just a few of the many and varied responsibilities of the office:

• Licensing of drivers

• Registration and titling of vehicles

• Regulation of automobile dealers and repair facilities

• Registration of voters

• Administration of elections

• The streamlined collection of revenue

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