CO Executive Orders (2020)

Executive Order

State: Colorado
Signed: March 28, 2020

Effective: March 28, 2020

Summary

Executive orders temporarily suspends the physical presence requirement and authorizes remote notarizations during the COVID-19 state of emergency.

Affects

All Colorado notarial officers, including Notaries Public.

Changes

Suspends the requirement that an individual making a statement or executing a signature must appear personally before a notarial officer, as set forth in C.R.S. § 24-21-506.
Clarifies that the temporary suspension does not apply to any notarial act required by Title 1 of Colorado Revised Statutes.
Authorizes the Secretary of State, consistent with the Secretary of State’s rulemaking authority under C.R.S. § 24-21-527(1)(a)-(f), to promulgate and issue temporary emergency rules to: (a) Authorize notarial officers to perform notarizations where a person appears before a notarial officer remotely, by real-time audio-video communication; and (b) establish the standards and processes necessary to allow remote notarizations, including rules regarding authentication, verification of identity, and audio-video recording.
Clarifies that the Executive Order does not affect the rights or duties of parties to existing contracts of insurance or other private contracts that may require or anticipate in-person notarization of documents, nor does the Executive Order preclude the parties to any such contract from waiving or modifying any provision in it.

Analysis

Colorado Governor Jared Polis becomes the latest governor to issue a temporary executive order authorizing remote online notarizations through at least April 27, 2020. The order may be extended by another executive order. This particular order clarifies that the temporary suspension of the physical presence law and the authorization of remote online notarization does not apply to any notarization involved in Title 1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. That title pertains to elections. Thus, no circulator or voting petition that must be notarized may use a remote online notarization. The Order authorizes the Secretary of State to adopt emergency rules to implement the Order in such areas as authentication, verification of identity and the audio-video recording that is typically required in laws enacted across the country.

Read Executive Order D 2020 019.

On April 6, 2020, Executive Order D 2020 030 extended the temporary remote notarization authoriztion until April 30, 2020.

On April 30, 2020, Executive Order D 2020 047 extended the temporary remote notarization authoriztion until May 30, 2020.

On May 29, 2020, Executive Order D 2020 087 extended the temporary remote notarization authorization until June 27, 2020.