Secretaries of State as Partisans in Robes: When the referee starts coaching plays, the rulebook becomes a campaign platform.
For most of American history, secretaries of state were administrative clerks: keepers of seals, certifiers of forms, the bureaucrats everyone ignored.
Today they’re partisan celebrities with super-PACs, book deals, and national followings.
They still print ballots—but now they also shape who can cast them, how they’re counted, and how fast the narrative hardens afterward.
From Paper Pusher to Power Broker
After 2020, the political Left realized that process control starts at the top of each state’s election bureaucracy.
Secretaries of state (SoS) write—or at least “interpret”—the rules manuals, deadlines, and certifications that determine how laws are applied.
They sit on emergency-rulemaking boards, sign consent decrees, and “clarify” statutes through memos that quietly rewrite practice.
In swing states—AZ, PA, MI, GA, NV—the SoS office became the most coveted seat no one used to notice.
Every manual line they adjust becomes operational gospel for counties.
Every “clarification” can shift thousands of ballots.
The Blueprint: Lawfare + Bureaucracy
Elias Law Group drafts the lawsuit.
The SoS “settles” by agreeing to new procedures—without passing legislation.
NGO partners then treat the settlement as binding precedent, citing it in future suits.
Result: policy by stipulation, implemented through administrative guidance that looks non-partisan but reads like campaign strategy.
Case Examples
- Georgia (2021 – 2023): Consent decree changed signature-match thresholds, then cited nationally as “best practice.”
- Michigan (2022): SoS guidance expanded ballot-drop hours beyond statute; when challenged, courts deferred to “agency expertise.”
- Arizona (2024): Procedural manuals re-interpreted chain-of-custody timing after litigation pressure—effectively amending law by memo.
How the Partisanship Is Masked
The rhetoric is “uniformity.”
The reality is selective elasticity—rules flex where Democratic turnout benefits and harden where Republican suits originate.
Media coverage frames each change as a “clarification” or “modernization,” never a policy shift.
Meanwhile, the same officials appear on activist podcasts or fundraise for national committees under the banner of “defending democracy.”
Referees now have jerseys.
The Network Effect
Progressive infrastructure treats SoS offices as relay nodes:
- Elias Law Group handles litigation.
- America Votes disseminates the new rules to field partners.
- Chorus influencers translate legalese into voter messaging.
- Sixteen Thirty Fund finances issue ads defending the “reforms.”
The feedback loop runs from court filing → agency settlement → media push → county implementation—all before legislators even notice.
Why It Persists
1️⃣ Courts defer to administrative expertise.
2️⃣ Legislatures lack real-time oversight.
3️⃣ Most voters can’t distinguish law from guidance.
4️⃣ Opposition treats the offices as campaign targets, not governing nodes.
In practice, the SoS has become a mini-executive branch inside each state—armed with rule-making authority and media immunity.
What Accountability Would Look Like
- Statutory clarity: Define which procedures require legislative approval.
- Legislative veto windows for emergency rules.
- Public posting and comment before guidance takes effect.
- Separation of duties: Ban active candidates or party officers from overseeing their own races.
- Transparency dashboards: All settlements, memos, and manual edits logged within 24 hours.
None of that requires revolution—just a mindset that the referee is not the team.
The Bottom Line
Secretaries of state used to certify what legislators decided.
Now they decide what legislators meant.
When the arbiter becomes an advocate, process ceases to be neutral and turns into policy by pen.
Citations
- Insurrection Barbie – “The 2026 Ballot Wars” (Oct 2025)
- Politico – “Secretaries of State Emerge as Front-Line Defenders of Democracy” (2024)
- [Georgia Consent Decree 2021 – Settlement Text Excerpt] (Georgia State Archives)
- [Arizona SOS – Election Procedures Manual Revisions 2024] (AZ SoS Site)
- Lawfare Blog – “Administrative Rulemaking and Election Law” (2023)