An Act To Require That Notaries Public Keep Records of Notarial Acts
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 1515
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: HOBBINS, PERRY, ADAMS, BRAUTIGAM, MILLS, SIMPSON
Amends: 4 MRSA §955-B, 4 MRSA §961

Legislative Document 
No.1S1S 
S.P.538 
March 20, 2007 
An Act To Require That Notaries Public Keep Records of Notarial 
Acts 
Submitted by the Secretary of State pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Senator HOBBINS of York. 
JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
Cosponsored by Senator: PERRY of Penobscot, Representatives: ADAMS of Portland, 
BRAUTIGAM of Falmouth, MILLS of Farmington, SIMPSON of Auburn. 
PrintN no rel.:yded p~r 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 4 MRSA §955-B, as amended by PL 1993, c. 485, § 1, is further amended 
to read: 
§955-B. Maintenance of r.ecords 
The Seeretary of State shall reeommend that e'lery A notary public shall keep and 
maintain records of all notarial acts perfonned in a journal according to section 961. The 
notary shall safeguard and retain exclusive custody of these records. The notary may not 
surrender the records to another notary or to an employer. The records may be inspected 
in the notary's presence by any individual whose identity is personally known to the 
notary or is proven on the basis of satisfactory evidence and who specifies the notarial act 
to be examined. 
Sec. 2. 4 MRSA §961 is enacted to read: 
§961. Record of notarial acts 
1. Required record keeDinl!. For every notarial act, a notary public shall record in 
a journal as described in subsection 5 at the time of notarization at least: 
A. The date and time of day of the notarial act; 
B. The type of notarial act; 
C. The type or title or a description of the document or proceeding; 
D. The signature, printed name and address of each principal; 
E. The evidence of identity of each principal, in the fonn of: 
(1) A statement that the principal is personally known to the notary public; 
(2) A notation of the type of identification document, its issuing agency, its serial 
or identification number and its date of issuance or expiration; or 
(3) The signature, printed name and address of each credible witness swearing to 
or affirming the principal's identity. If the credible witnesses are not personally 
known to the notary public, a description of identification documents on which 
the notary public relied; 
F. The fee, if any, charged for the notarial act; 
G. 
The address where the notarization was perfonned if not the notary public's 
business address; and 
H. 
Any infonnation that the notary public considers necessary to fulfill the 
requirements under this section. 
2. 
Prohibited records. A notary public may not record a social security or credit 
card number in a journal as described in subsection 5. 
• 
3. 
Incomplete records. A notary public shall record in a journal as described in 
subsection 5 the reasons for not completing a notarial act. 
4. 
Reguested records. For the inspection allowed under section 955-B, a notary 
public shall record in a journal as described in subsection 5 the circumstances of any 
request to inspect or copy an entry in the journal, including the requestor's name, address, 
signature and evidence of identity. The reasons for refusal to allow inspection or copying 
of a journal entry must also be recorded. 
5. 
Journal form. A notarial journal of a notary public may be in any form that 
meets the physical requirements set out in this subsection. 
A. 
The cover and pages inside the cover must be bound together by a binding 
method that is designed to prevent the insertion or removal of the cover or a page. 
B. 
The pages must be consecutively numbered from the beginning to the end of the 
journal. If a journal provides 2 pages on which to record the required information 
about the same notarial act, then both pages may be numbered with the same number 
or each page may be numbered with a different number. A page number must be 
preprinted. 
C. 
The journal must contain on the inside of the front cover or on the first page the 
following information: 
(1) The name of the notary public; 
(2) The notary public's commission expiration date; 
(3) The notary public's residence or business street or mailing address; 
(4) At the time of each entry, the dates of the first and last notarial acts recorded 
in the notarial journal; 
(5) 
A statement that the journal may not be destroyed before 7 years after 
expiration of the last commission under which an entry was made in the journal; 
and 
(6) That, in the event of the decease of the notary public, the journal must be 
delivered or mailed to the Secretary of State; 
(7) The meaning of any uncommon abbreviation or symbol used in recording a 
notarial act in the notarial journal; and 
(8) The si!?llature of the notary public. 
SUMMARY 
This bill makes record keeping for all notarial acts performed by a notary public 
mandatory.