Journal Requirements

Section 176.900  Journal Requirements 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. 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. c)         If a notary public's name, commission expiration date, or address changes before the notary public stops using the notarial journal, the notary public shall add the new information after the old information and the date on which the information changed. 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. e)         A notary public shall allow for the inspection of the journal or electronic journal as required by Section 176.950. f)         Notwithstanding any other subsection of this Part to the contrary, a notary employed by an attorney or law firm is not required to keep a journal of notarizations performed during the notary's employment if the attorney or law firm maintains a copy of the documents notarized.  No attorney or law firm shall be required to violate attorney-client privilege by allowing or authorizing inspection of any notarizations that are recorded in a notary's journal.  Journals of notarizations performed solely within the course of a notary's employment with an attorney or law firm are the property of the employing attorney or firm. g)         No notary public nor electronic notary public is required to keep or maintain a journal or otherwise record a notarial act or electronic notarial act in a journal if that act is performed by or on behalf of a candidate for public office and includes one or more of the following documents: 1)         nominating petitions; 2)         petitions of candidacy; 3)         petitions of nominations; 4)         nominating papers; or 5)         nomination papers. (See 5 ILCS 312/3-107.) h) The exemption under subsection (g) applies regardless of whether the notarial act or electronic notarial act is performed on the documents described in subsection (g) before, on, or after the effective date of the amendatory Act of the 103 rd General Assembly, and the failure of a notary public or an electronic notary public to keep a journal of or to otherwise record such an act does not affect the validity of the notarial act on that document and is not a violation of the Act . [5 ILCS 312/3-107]