5 ILCS 312/3-107

(5 ILCS 312/3-107)

Sec. 3-107. Journal.

(a) A notary public or an electronic notary public shall keep a journal of each notarial act or electronic notarial act which includes, without limitation, the requirements set by the Secretary of State in administrative rule, but shall not include any electronic signatures of the person for whom an electronic notarial act was performed or any witnesses.

(b) The Secretary of State shall adopt administrative rules that set forth, at a minimum:

(1) the information to be recorded for each notarization or electronic notarization;

(2) the period during which the notary public or electronic notary public must maintain the journal; and

(3) the minimum security requirements for protecting the information in the journal and access to the contents of the journal.

(c) A notary or electronic notary may maintain his or her journal in either paper form or electronic form and may maintain more than one journal or electronic journal to record notarial acts or electronic notarial acts.

(d) The fact that the employer or contractor of a notary or electronic notary public keeps a record of notarial acts or electronic notarial acts does not relieve the notary public of the duties required by this Section. A notary public or electronic notary public shall not surrender the journal to an employer upon termination of employment and an employer shall not retain the journal of an employee when the employment of the notary public or electronic notary public ceases.

(e) If the journal of a notary public or electronic notary public is lost, stolen, or compromised, the notary or electronic notary shall notify the Secretary of State within 10 business days after the discovery of the loss, theft, or breach of security.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section or any rules adopted under this Section, neither a notary public nor an electronic notary public is required to keep a journal of or to otherwise record in a journal a notarial act or an electronic notarial act if that act is performed on any of the following documents to be filed by or on behalf of a candidate for public office:

(1) nominating petitions;

(2) petitions of candidacy;

(3) petitions for nomination;

(4) nominating papers; or

(5) nomination papers.

The exemption under this subsection (f) applies regardless of whether the notarial act or electronic notarial act is performed on the documents described in paragraphs (1) through (5) of this subsection before, on, or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 103rd 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 this Act. As used in this subsection (f), "public office" has the meaning given in Section 9-1.10 of the Election Code.

(Source: P.A. 102-160, eff. 6-5-23 (See Section 91 of P.A. 103-562 for effective date of P.A. 102-160); 103-562, eff. 11-17-23.)