An Act To Require That Notaries Public Keep Records of Notarial Acts
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 1312
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: PLOWMAN, COTTA, MOULTON
Amends: 4 MRSA §955-B, 4 MRSA §961

Legislative Document 
No. 1312 
S.P. 409 
In Senate, March 29, 2011 
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. 
JOSEPH G. CARLETON, JR. 
Secretary of the Senate 
Presented by Senator PLOWMAN of Penobscot. 
Cosponsored by Representative COTTA of China and 
Representative: MOULTON of York. 
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 records 
The Secretary of State shall recommend that every Every notary public shall keep and 
maintain records of all notarial acts performed pursuant 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 
A notary public shall keep a journal. 
1.  Required information.  For every notarial act, the notary public shall record in a 
journal at the time of notarization the following information: 
A.  The date and time of day of the notarial act; 
B.  The type of notarial act; 
C.  The type, title or a description of the proceeding or the document or set of 
documents comprising a transaction; 
D.  The signature, printed name and address of each principal; 
E.  The evidence of identity of each principal, in the form of: 
(1)  A statement that the person is "personally known" to the notary public; 
(2)  A notation of the type of identification document and the issuing agency, the 
serial or identification number and the date of issuance or expiration; or 
(3)  The signature, printed name and address of each credible witness swearing to 
or affirming to the principal's identity.  If the credible witnesses are not 
personally known to the notary public, the entry must include a description of the 
identification documents on which the notary public relied; 
F.  The fee, if any, charged for the notarial act; 
G.  The address where the notarial act was performed if not the notary public's 
business address; and 
H.  Any other information that the notary public considers necessary to fulfill the 
requirements of this section. 
As used in this subsection, "principal" means the person for whom the notarial act is 
being performed. 
2.  Prohibited information.  A notary public may not record a social security 
number, account number, credit card number or debit card number in the journal.  
3.  Acts not completed.  A notary public shall record in the journal the circumstances 
of a failure or refusal to complete a notarial act.  
4.  Request for inspection or copying.  For an inspection allowed under section 
955-B, a notary public shall record in the journal the circumstances of the request to 
inspect or copy an entry in the journal, including the requester's name, address, signature 
and evidence of identity.  The reason for refusal to allow inspection or copying of a 
journal entry also must be recorded.  
5.  Form of the journal.   A journal of a notary public may be in any form that meets 
the following physical requirements: 
A.  The front cover and pages must be bound together by a binding method that is 
designed to prevent the insertion or removal of the cover or a page; 
B.  Each page 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, both pages may be numbered with the same number or 
each page may be numbered with a different number.  The page numbers must be 
preprinted; and 
C.  The journal must contain on the inside of the front cover or on the first page the 
following information in any order: 
(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)  The earliest date the journal may be destroyed, which is 7 years after 
expiration of the last commission of the notary public making an entry in the 
journal; 
(5)  A notation that, in the event of the death of the notary public, the journal 
must be delivered or mailed to the Secretary of State; 
(6)  The meaning of any abbreviated word or symbol used in recording a notarial 
act in the journal; 
(7)  The signature of the notary public; and 
(8)  At the respective times of entry, the dates of the first and last notarial acts 
recorded in the journal. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires record keeping for all notarial acts performed by a notary public.