> The National Association of Secretaries of State disagree with you, including in the following public report "Issues and Trends in State Notary Regulation: NASS Report on State Notarization Policies and Practice" found here:
http://www.nass.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar....
> Key Quotes Regarding electronic notarization: “New state and federal laws, such as the 2000 Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN), authorize every state-commissioned notary in the nation to use electronic signatures in performing official acts.”
You are misunderstanding the issue California and other states have with electronic notarization. As the document you cite notes, but you appear to have overlooked:
As previously mentioned, all states require that an individual seeking
to have a document electronically notarized appear in person before the
notary at the time of notarization. Colorado’s law specifically emphasizes
that electronic notarization is not remote notarization–the signer must
appear in the presence of the notary and swear, affirm, or acknowledge
the electronic document being notarized.
The laws that have made electronic signatures valid in many contexts, including notarization, just deal with using electronic signatures to replace paper signatures and other physical records. For instance, again from the document you cited:
Therefore, UETA permits a notary public and other authorized officers
to act electronically, effectively removing the stamp/seal requirements.
However, it does not eliminate any of the other requirements of notarial
laws. The process of notarization remains the same under UETA. Only the
technology used to make a signature is different.
More:
Under the NASS electronic notarization standards, RULONA, and the most
recent version of the Model Notary Act, an electronic notarization must
meet the same basic standards as a paper-based notarization. The traditional
components remain present, including the notary certificate, the notary
signature and the notary seal information. In most states, the signer must
still appear before the notary public face to face in the same room.
Requiring personal appearance allows a notary to interact with and affirm
the identity of the signer, ensuring that he or she is authorized to sign
and is not doing so under duress.