Guidelines to Assist Persons Seeking Access to the Secretary's Public Records
Every person has a right to access public information. This is established in The Massachusetts Public Records Law (M.G.L. Chapter 66 & Chapter 4, Section 7(26)).
In order to assist members of the public with accessing public records in the custody of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth (Office), the following guidelines are provided.
The Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth has custody of certain public records. To assist members of the public, we provide the following guidelines. Requests for public records should be directed to the Office's Records Access Officer. The Records Access Officer can be contacted at:
Valerie J. Connolly
Records Access Officer
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
One Ashburton Place - Room 1710
Boston, MA 02108
Phone: 617-878-3106
Fax: 617-723-1372
Email: Sec.RAO@sec.state.ma.us
It’s best to submit a public records request in writing. This ensures the Office accurately and completely responds to your request.
A request for public records should include a reasonable description of specific records being requested.
The Office can assess a reasonable fee for the production of public records.
The public records maintained by the Office include, but are not limited to, records contained within the following areas of the Office:
- Public Records Division
- Elections Division
- Corporations Division
- Securities Division
- Lobbyist Division
- Massachusetts Archives
- Massachusetts Historical Commission
- State Publications and Regulations Division
Requests for land records from Registries of Deeds should be made directly to the applicable Registry. Information pertaining to the Registries can be found here.
The Public Records Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office maintains a searchable website of public records requests that have been received and reported by other state agencies. Requests for records from state agencies outside the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office should be submitted directly to the appropriate agency. The Secretary’s office does not have custody of the records of other agencies.