As Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie partners with township, city, and county officials to organize elections on behalf of Minnesota’s 3.7 million eligible voters.

Ritchie also oversees a wide range of services provided by the Office of Secretary of State; these include business filings, the archiving of official documents, and appointments to public commissions. He is also responsible for administering Safe at Home, Minnesota’s address confidentiality program.

Ritchie serves on the State Executive Council, the State Board of Investment, and on the board of the Minnesota Historical Society. Ritchie is also a member of the Executive Board of the National Association of Secretaries of State, serving as the association’s secretary.

In the 1980s, Ritchie served in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture working to address the economic crisis threatening family farms and rural communities. He served as the president of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy from 1988 to 2006.

As a result of his non-partisan leadership of the 2008 U.S. Senate recount, Ritchie was named the 2008 Politician of the Year by Politics in Minnesota, the state’s largest political news journal. He was also named the 2008 Most Valuable State Official in the United States by The Nation.

Ritchie and his wife Nancy live in Minneapolis.