All General Election records are sent to the Office of the Secretary of State. This Constitutional Officer checks the vote returns and issues commissions to all legally elected public officials. Some of the earlier elections are very irregularly documented. The first election for which complete consolidated returns exist is the November 5, 1940 election. Please check each year's boxing arrangement carefully as the filing systems vary. In some years all records are boxed together and arranged alphabetically by county. In others the consolidated returns and the numbered lists of voters are boxed separately from the precinct returns and tally sheets. In still other years the precinct returns are boxed separately from the tally sheets. In most instances the following order is observed: (1) Consolidated returns, (2) Precinct returns, (3) Tally sheets, and (4) Numbered lists of voters.

Beginning in 2018, any recounts of voting totals are added to these files. In 2020, some county recounts have their own folder, while other counties have the recount results mixed in with their return sheets, also called Statements of Votes Cast (SOVC). Information from some of the special elections held in November 2020 have also ended up in this series (record group 002.02.025-1).