The Secretary of State of Wisconsin is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Wisconsin, and is second (behind the Lieutenant Governor) in the line of succession to the office of Governor of Wisconsin. Twenty-eight individuals have held the office of Secretary of State, two of whom have held non-consecutive terms. The incumbent is Doug La Follette, a Democrat first elected for a single four-year term in 1974 and reelected since 1982. Election and term of office The Secretary of State is elected on Election Day in November, and takes office on the first Monday of the next January. Originally, the Secretary of State's term lasted for two years; since a 1967 amendment, however, the term has lasted four years. There is no limit to the number of terms a Secretary of State may hold. In the event of a vacancy in the office of the Secretary of State, the Governor may appoint a replacement to serve the balance of the term; this has occurred twice: upon the death of Fred R. Zimmerman, Louis Allis was appointed to fill the remainder of the term, and Glenn Wise was appointed to fill the entire of the next term to which Zimmerman had been elected. The Secretary of State may be removed from office through an impeachment trial. They may also choose to resign from office. No Secretary of State has ever been impeached, and none has resigned. Powers and duties The Secretary of State is charged by the state constitution to record the official acts of the Legislature and Governor and to make such records available for public inspection whenever required by either house of the Legislature. The state constitution likewise directs the Secretary of State to keep the Great Seal and use it to authenticate the Governor's official acts, other than bills signed into law. In this capacity as the chief clerk of state government, the Secretary of State receives, files, certifies, preserves, and issues an array of legally, commercially, and historically significant public records, including: The original and enrolled laws and resolutions of the Legislature; Executive orders, pardons, proclamations, extraditions, and commissions issued by the Governor; The official oaths and bonds of state legislators, judges, and the principal officers of state agencies, whether elected or appointed; All political appointments made to each legislative, administrative and judicial agency; All deeds, conveyances, abstracts