Regarding the Illinois Notary Public Act’s new journal requirements, can all notaries at a bank share a journal? Can we use an Excel spreadsheet for the journal?

No, each notary public commissioned in Illinois must maintain their own notarial journal under their exclusive control. Also, we do not believe that an Excel spreadsheet would meet the Illinois Secretary of State’s requirements for an electronic journal.

The Illinois Secretary of State recently finalized administrative rules implementing changes to the Illinois Notary Public Act that require notaries to “keep a journal of each notarial act or electronic notarial act.” Each journal must contain the notary public’s name, commission number, commission expiration date, office address of record, and signature along with a statement that on the notary’s death (or adjudication of incompetency), the notary’s personal representative, guardian, or any other person knowingly in possession of the journal must deliver it to the Secretary of State. Further, notarial journals — whether tangible or electronic — “must remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times.” Consequently, we do not believe that multiple notaries may record their notarial acts in the same journal.

The administrative rules also provide that a “journal maintained in an electronic format must be designed to prevent the insertion, removal, or substitution of an entry” and “[p]rohibit the electronic notary public or any other person from deleting a record included in the electronic journal or altering the content or sequence of such a record after the record is entered into the electronic journal except to redact personally identifiable information.” Although an Excel spreadsheet may be locked and password protected, we do not believe those safeguards would prohibit a notary from deleting or altering the document’s content after a record has been entered.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

Illinois Notary Public Act, 5 ILCS 312/3-107(a) (“A notary public or an electronic notary public shall keep a journal of each notarial act or electronic notarial act which includes, without limitation, the requirements set by the Secretary of State in administrative rule, but shall not include any electronic signatures of the person for whom an electronic notarial act was performed or any witnesses.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.900(a) (“Every notary public, whether or not also an electronic notary public, must record each notarial act in a journal at the time of notarization to comply with 5 ILCS 312/3-107 and this Subpart J.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.900(b) (“Each journal of a notary public, whether maintained on a tangible medium or in an electronic format, must contain all of the following information in any order:

(1) The name of the notary public as it appears on the commission;

(2) The notary public’s commission number;

(3) The notary public’s commission expiration date;

(4) The notary public’s office address of record with the Secretary of State;

(5) A statement that, upon the death or adjudication of incompetency of the notary public, the notary public’s personal representative or guardian or any other person knowingly in possession of the journal must deliver or mail it to the Secretary of State;

(6) The meaning of any abbreviated word or symbol used in recording a notarial act in the notarial journal; and

(7) The signature of the notary public.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.930 (“Form and Content of an Electronic Notarial Journal

(a) A journal maintained in electronic format may be in any form that complies with this Section and the entry requirements in Section 176.910.

(b) A journal maintained in an electronic format must be designed to prevent the insertion, removal, or substitution of an entry.

(c) A journal maintained in an electronic format must be securely stored and recoverable in the case of a hardware or software malfunction.

(d) Entries from the notarial journal must be available upon request by the Secretary of State in a PDF format.

(e) The journal of a notary public shall remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times.

(f) A notary public who performs multiple notarizations for the same principal within a single transaction may abbreviate the entry of those notarizations in the notary journal after first including all of the information required by the Act. The abbreviated entry must indicate the type of transaction and the number of documents notarized as part of that single transaction.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.920(e) (“Form and Content of Journals Maintained on a Tangible Medium . . . (e) The journal of a notary public must remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.900(d) (“An electronic journal kept by a notary public or an electronic notary public under 5 ILCS 312/3-107 must comply with the requirements of subsections (a) and (b) and must also:

(1) Prohibit the electronic notary public or any other person from deleting a record included in the electronic journal or altering the content or sequence of such a record after the record is entered into the electronic journal except to redact personally identifiable information as required by Section 176.910(d);

(2) Be securely backed up by the electronic notary public and the electronic notarization system provider whose electronic notarization system was used by the electronic notary, if applicable; and

(3) Omit all personally identifiable information, as defined in Section 176.10.”)

Illinois Notary Public Regulations, 14 Ill. Adm. Code 176.960 (“Electronic Journal Record Retention and Depositories

(a) A notary public must retain the electronic journal required and any audio-video recording created under 5 ILCS 312/6A-104 in a computer or other electronic storage device that protects the journal and recording against unauthorized access by password or cryptographic process. The recording must be created in an industry-standard, audio-visual file format and must not include images of any electronic record that was the subject of the electronic or remote notarization.

(b) An electronic journal must be retained for at least 7 years after the last electronic or remote notarial act chronicled in the journal. An audio-visual recording must be retained for at least 7 years after the recording is made.

(c) A notary public must take reasonable steps to ensure that a backup of the electronic journal and audio-visual recording exists and is secure from unauthorized use.”)