Electronic Notary Journal Information
It is legal and possible to become an e-notary (electronic notary) in many states. All electronic notaries need an e-journal or electronic journal, and e-seal (electronic seal), and online e-documents to notarize. Please note that personal appearance of the signer is required, so you can not do any remote notarizations using this technology according to current notary laws in 2011 / 2012.
The NNA used to be one of the most robust organizations at promoting e-notarizations, but they abandoned their ENJOA electronic journal program back in 2009. They might still have information about where to point you, but it is unclear at this time. Although the concept of e-notarizations and e-notaries is very interesting, hardly any notaries are actually commissioned to do this type of work.
Here is a site that sells Notary Journal Software for e-notarizations
http://www.topazsystems.com/Software/download/gemtrust.htm
There was another site called the notary shop, but their site didn’t pull up.
You are also encouraged to ask your state notary division where they recommend getting an electronic journal if you are already an e-notary.
Here is a list of states that we do NOT have information about in terms of e-notarizations. We assume these states don’t allow e-notarizations.
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
You might also like:
The pros and cons of eNotarizations
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=3672
10 points on eNotarizations
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=228
Disagree with “All electronic notaries need an e-journal or electronic journal, and e-seal (electronic seal)”. An official comment to the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (before customization by each state that passes it) states “This section permits a notary public and other authorized officers to act electronically, effectively removing the stamp/seal requirements.” Also, the UETA does not require a journal, so if a state didn’t have a journal requirement before passing UETA, it doesn’t have a journal requirement after passing UETA. There is no technical reason why an electronic transaction cannot be recorded in a paper journal, and many technical reasons why a paper journal is better.
UETA: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/telecom/uniform-electronic-transactions-acts.aspx
Comment by G — March 15, 2012 @ 3:03 pm