Identifying Signers: A Notary’s Greatest Challenge

By Michael Lewis

“Can I accept this ID?” “My signer doesn’t look like the photo on her ID.” “What if the ID is expired?” Of all the questions Notaries ask the National Notary Association, the most common involve issues with verifying signers’ identities.

Compared to other tasks Notaries perform, verifying a signer’s identity is the most important, and arguably the most challenging. There are myriad variations of IDs and differing methods of verifying identity. And Notaries must always exercise a high-level of judgment before proceeding.

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What Would You Do Answers: The case of the masked ID photo

By David Thun on March 3, 2021

Last week, we shared a situation based on a real-life ID issue, where we asked Notaries how they would handle a driver’s license that included a photo of a person wearing a mask.

While the ID technically meets notarization requirements, the mask makes it difficult if not impossible to verify the signer’s appearance. Here’s what our readers had to say about this difficult challenge.

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State Lawmakers Consider Remote Notarization Model

by Allison Bell

A team of state insurance legislators wants to help people prove their signatures and documents are real without making in-person visits to notaries.

The lawmakers, members of the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), are working on a draft of a Remote Notarization Model Act.

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