AN ACT to eliminate the requirement of an elected official recommendation for notary public applicants in counties with more than fifteen thousand notaries public.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 10A‑4(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	A person qualified for a notarial commission shall meet all of the following requirements:
(1)	Be at least 18 years of age.
(2)	Reside or work in this State.
(3)	Satisfactorily complete a course of study that is approved by the Secretary and consists of not less than three hours nor more than six hours of classroom instruction provided by community colleges throughout the State, unless the person is a licensed member of the Bar of this State.
(4)	Purchase and keep as a reference a manual approved by the Secretary that describes the duties, authority, and ethical responsibilities of notaries public.
(5)	Submit an application containing no significant misstatement or omission of fact.  The application form shall be provided by the Secretary and be available at the register of deeds office in each county.  Every application shall bear the signature of the applicant written with pen and ink, and the signature shall be acknowledged by the applicant before a person authorized to administer oaths.  Except for any applicant who seeks to receive the oath of office from the register of deeds of a county where more than 15,000 active notaries public are on record on January 1 of the year when the application is filed, the applicant shall also obtain the recommendation of one publicly elected official in North Carolina whose recommendation shall be contained on the application.
(6)	Pay a nonrefundable fee of fifty dollars ($50.00)."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective January 1, 2006, and applies to notary public applications filed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 1st day of June, 2005.

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 James B. Black
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2005