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
Which states allow e-notarizations?
What states allow e-notarizations or e-notaries?
The status of being an electronic notary is a very new and very misunderstood profession or office. To be an e-Notary, so you can do e-Notarizations, is often a completely different type of commission in many states. Another fact to understand is that e-Notarizations can not (or can not always) be done for Deeds or other documents that effect real property. The biggest issue that bothers notaries about e-Notarizations is that the signer doesn’t always have to appear before the notary to receive an e-Notarization. The first time a signer is notarized, they should appear before the notary, but in some states, the subsequent e-notarizations may or may not require physical presence.
e-Notarizations require the use of an electronic journal (ENJOA). The signature of the signer would go in that journal.
An e-signing is normally done with a physical journal and done in the presence of a notary public. The documents might be signed online, or at least most of them signed online. However, the signer woudl still appear before the notary public and sign a physical journal of notarial acts.
Here are the states that currently allow e-notarizations. The rules for e-Notarizations might be very different from state to state.
California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.