PA Electronic Notarization Program Notice

On January 30, 2006, Pennsylvania established its Electronic Notarization Initiative with the assistance of the National Notary Association. The NNA provided the technology used by a Pennsylvania Notary to create and affix an electronic signature and supportive services that allowed the fledgling program, the first ever of its kind, to get off the ground. The Initiative was hampered by its narrow scope: only real property documents destined for recordation in the counties of Chester, Lancaster, Philadelphia and Westmoreland could be electronically notarized. Roughly one year into the Initiative, the Pennsylvania Department of State solicited recommendations from the NNA for the program’s expansion, and the NNA authored a report with several recommendations for consideration by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The Department began to send out messages that it was interested in broadening the scope of the program to include other technology solutions than just the one solution used since the inception of the program, and then also permitted all types of documents to be electronically notarized. The April 17, 2010, notice in the official Pennsylvania Bulletin signals the inception of the new phase of the Program, which now allows any technology vendor to have its electronic notarization solution approved by the Department. Any Notary who wants to perform electronic notarizations must apply with the Department of State as previously, but as of the date of this New Law Alert, the Department had not lifted its temporary suspension of accepting applications initiated on September 25, 2009.

Read the Notice.