Hi. My name is Haley.

I am asking for your vote to be your next Missouri Secretary of State.

Why should you vote for me? You should vote for me because my goal is public service to you, each and every citizen of Missouri, because I understand the great importance and responsibility of the office, and because I will perform every aspect of the office’s work in a non-political and non-partisan way.

I call the Secretary of State the most important job that most people know almost nothing about. While many people know that the Secretary of State is Missouri’s chief election officer, most do not know that this office is also our state’s chief recordkeeper, maintaining the state archives, the state library, the state Code of Regulations, and many other state publications and government forms. Most people do not know that the Secretary of State regulates the securities industry to protect investors, and maintains the Uniform Commercial Code filings that protector business lenders. Without the work of the Secretary of State’s office, business in Missouri would be much less efficient and state government would grind to a halt.

In recent years I have felt frustrated because this important job seems to have become more and more politicized and partisan, and less and less about doing the routine but necessary work needed to run our State. I want to change that back to what it once was, when the Secretary of State was not in the headlines pushing a personal political agenda, but was instead quietly coordinating their team of public servants to Get the People’s Work Done.

Finally, as to the Secretary of State’s best known role, that of the State’s chief election officer, I believe this work should be done in a non-partisan way. The Secretary of State should never put her thumb on the scale in favor of candidates of her party, put up barriers to candidates of other parties, or tilt the published summaries of citizen ballot initiatives to favor or disfavor an initiative. Instead, the Secretary of State should ensure that our elections are run completely fairly, counting every legal vote, and making sure that no one votes who shouldn’t.

At the end of the day, the People should not know whether the Secretary of State ran as a Democratic or Republican candidate. They only need to know that she is getting the job done.