A bunch of states are in a huge hurry to implement online notary services as a form of legal notarization. However, online notarizations increase the possibility of fraud. The question is how much fraud?

As with any other system, there is no way to predict how much fraud a new system will cause or facilitate. If you test a system over the course of years and get some analytics on how often court cases happen in comparison to traditional notary services, then you can see if the risk is worth the reward.

The problem is that so many states are enabling RON all at once, that if there is a serious problem, this could effect elections, and all sorts of notarized documents. It could even invalidate elections if fraud is investigated and force elections to be held all over or at a minimum create ongoing conflicts between democrats and republicans.

Personally, I think it is better to vote in person instead of seeing a notary to get an absentee ballot notarized. There is less possibility for complications and fraud. And absentee ballots without a notary seems like suicide as fraud would be rampant. Mailing in a copy of your ID doesn’t compare it to what you look like in real life — that is the job of a notary to compare.

Shut downs are another example of states trying untested processes by just jumping on the bandwagon. If shut downs are detrimental to economies, then instead of one state having an economic problem, all states will have on all at once. Would it not be a better idea to test out what happens when you shut down an economy for three months? You can track all of the suicides, child molestation, alcoholism, protests, and long term economic damage before implementing shut downs on a massive scale. When disaster strikes is NOT the time to be experimenting with anything.

PATIENT: Can we go to the sun to get a solution to Covid19?

DOCTOR: It would be too hot

PATIENT: What if we went at night?