State of North Carolina
Department of the Secretary of State
ELAINE F. MARSHALL OZIE H. STALLWORTH
SECRETARY OF STATE Electronic Notarization Director
Certification and Filing Division
P. O. Box 29626
Raleigh, NC 27626
Voice: 919-807-2295 Fax: 919-807-2220
ostallworth@sosnc.com
North Carolina Secretary of State
Position on Notary Journals/Logbooks
North Carolina General Statute 10B-2(1)(3) states that the Notary Act’s underlying purpose is “To promote, serve and protect the public interests” and “To prevent fraud and forgery.”
In light of the robo-signing epidemic, identity theft and mortgage fraud related to the foreclosure crisis, the Office of the Secretary of State reasserts its long-held strong recommendation that notaries keep a record of their notary acts in a bound journal or log book.
Keeping a notary journal aids in both protecting the public interest and preventing fraud and forgery because it:
1) causes would-be criminals to think twice before presenting a forged signature to a notary knowing they will be asked to leave proof of their request in the form of their signature in a journal;
2) provides a level of protection for the notary in the event a signer later tries to disown a signature by providing clear evidence in the form of their signature that they did appear before a notary on a given date to request a notarization; and
3) provides valuable evidence to law enforcement officials investigating allegations of notary misconduct and criminal activity related to many forms of document fraud.
Seeing that the simple act of keeping a notary journal is clearly in keeping with the stated purpose of the Notary Public Act, in that it provides a level of protection to the public against document fraud, safeguards business transactions from those who would shamelessly refute entering into a contract to skirt their legal obligations, protects the notary from baseless allegations of notary misconduct, and provides valuable evidence to law enforcement agencies in aiding them in their investigations where fraud and forgery routinely occur, we call on every notary to voluntarily keep a journal of notarial acts as a best practice.
Notaries should keep a bound journal so that pages are not easily removed and should at a minimum record the date, type of document, signer’s name, type of identification presented along with the signer’s signature.