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Secretary of State Grimes launches new notary portal in accordance with 2019 passage of legislation


Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has announced the launch of a new online notary portal on sos.ky.gov.

The announcement follows passage of 2019 legislation championed by Grimes and sponsored by Sen. Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville) to bring Kentucky’s notary laws into conformity with the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (“RULONA”).

Grimes

The new law (Senate Bill 114) allows county clerks to record real estate deeds, mortgages and other documents electronically and notarize documents electronically and remotely via audiovisual technology.

“It took us five years to update Kentucky’s antiquated notary laws,” said Grimes, the Commonwealth’s Chief Business Official. “Kentucky is now poised to lead the nation in reshaping notarial acts to help businesses succeed and our economy grow.”

Sen. McGarvey, who sponsored the bill, said, “Secretary Grimes’ exhaustive work on this policy both nationally and in the Commonwealth yielded a bipartisan, comprehensive bill which now has a portal that supports transactional security, the privacy of signers, and the centuries-old assurance of the notarial act.”

“Led by Assistant Secretary of State Erica Galyon, I want to thank my staff for their diligent, hard work in preparing and filing the necessary regulations and creating an online portal for Kentucky to be able to lead the way. This is truly a game-changer,” said Grimes.

While Grimes has led nationally on modernizing notary laws, serving as chair of the National Association of Secretaries of State Notary Task Force since 2016, this is one in the long line of successful reforms that she has made to the Office of Business in the past eight years.

Most of the nation’s Secretaries of State are responsible for commissioning and regulating 4.5 million notaries public. During Grimes’ tenure, her office processed over 167,500 notary applications. In 2019 alone, the Office processed nearly 20,000 applications for Notary-State At Large.

The Secretary of State’s Office will continue to process all notary applications both on paper and online and will continue to notify notary applicants of their appointment by postcard.

Postcards will no longer be mailed to county clerks, eliminating the need for county clerks to return certificates that are not issued.

The new law will go into effect on January 1.

Office of the Secretary of State


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