Kevin Shelley

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28^th California Secretary of State
Kevin Shelley

In office January 6, 2003 – March 4, 2005
Preceded by	Bill Jones
Succeeded by	Cathy Mitchell

Born	November 16, 1955 (1955-11-16) (age 52) San Francisco, California
Political party	Democratic

Kevin Francis Shelley (born November 16, 1955 in San Francisco, California) is a California politician, who was the 28th California Secretary of State from January 6, 2003, until his resignation on March 4, 2005.

Shelley was raised in San Francisco, the only son in a family of five. His father, Jack Shelley, was a State Senator, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Mayor of San Francisco.

Shelley graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1973. He received his B.A. in political science from the University of California, Davis. He obtained his J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

He joined the staff of Congressman Phillip Burton and continued in his position when Sala Burton assumed her husband's seat after his death.

In 1990, Shelley was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 1996, he won a seat in the California State Assembly. Term limits prevented Shelley from seeking a fourth term as an Assemblyman in 2002, so he sought election as California's Secretary of State, the state's chief elections official.

Within weeks of taking office as Secretary of State, petitions were filed to recall Governor Gray Davis, a fellow Democrat. Six months after taking office, Shelley had to certify that there were enough signatures on these petitions to mandate the 2003 gubernatorial recall election, the first such election in state history. As Secretary of State, Shelley was responsible for overseeing that statewide special election.

Shelley was generally credited with good work on his handling of the 2003 recall election and on his handling of the controversy over the verifiability of electronic voting machines. He was the first state election official to decertify DRE voting machine systems already in use, to require all DRE voting machine systems to contain an accessible paper copy of a person's vote, and to adopt standards for such systems. He also initiated an investigation into electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions).

But after that, he became embroiled in a number of scandals. A number of former staffers and other associates came forward and accused Shelley of abusive behavior toward his underlings, including sexually explicit gestures and remarks. Other accusations surfaced charging that Shelley received allegedly laundered campaign funds during his race for Secretary of State. Shelley maintained that he did not know that the funds were illicitly transferred to his campaign treasury. On October 29, 2004, Shelley replaced three of his top aides, including his trusted assistant state secretary of communications, with veteran civil servants, in an effort to bring more accountability to his office.

Shelley announced his resignation on February 4, 2005, to be effective March 1 [1] [2] although he did not leave office until March 4 [3] [4]. Chief Deputy Secretary of State Cathy Mitchell breifly served as Secretary of State until Bruce McPherson, a Republican appointee of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Upon taking office, McPherson promptly reversed Shelley's actions. On March 10th. 2006, McPherson, a Republican, certified the DRE voting machines without verifiable, auditable paper trails.^[1] {http://www.cri-dove.org/cri_voting.htm} California State Bar records indicate that Shelley resumed practicing law in April 2005.[5]