# National Association of Secretaries of State NASS is the nonpartisan professional association of state secretaries of state, founded in 1904 and the oldest organization of public officials in the United States. It tracks the office across the 47 states that have one — Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah assign those functions to the lieutenant governor instead — and runs working committees on elections, business services, and state archives. Its structural significance is what it cannot do. NASS adopts resolutions and best-practice standards by consensus among its members, and **none of them binds any state**. It sits in no legal chain: no federal statute routes authority through it, no state is required to belong, and a secretary of state who ignores a NASS position faces no consequence from NASS. The same is true of its sibling organization NASED, the National Association of State Election Directors, which represents the career administrators rather than the elected principals. That makes both associations part of the voluntary layer of American election administration — real coordination that exists because officials find it useful, and that disappears the moment they stop. ## See Also - [[State Election Administration Tree]] — the structure NASS coordinates across - [[Electronic Registration Information Center]] — the other major voluntary interstate body - [[Election Assistance Commission]] — the federal counterpart, which does have statutory duties - [[Help America Vote Act]]