FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to provide for remote notarization.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. That chapter 18-1 be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read:

    Terms in this Act mean:

            (1)    "Acknowledgment," a declaration by a person before a notarial officer that the person has signed a document for the purpose stated in the document and, if the document is signed by a representative who is:

            (a)    An authorized officer, agent, partner, trustee, or other representative of a person other than a natural person;

            (b)    A public officer, personal representative, guardian, or other representative in the capacity stated in a document;

            (c)    An attorney-in-fact for a natural person; or

            (d)    An authorized representative of another person in any other capacity, that the representative signed the document with proper authority and signed it as the

act of the person identified in the document;

            (2)    "Communication technology," an electronic device or process that allows a notarial officer and a person not in the physical presence of the notarial officer to communicate with each other simultaneously by sight and sound;

            (3)    "Notarial act," an act that a notarial officer may perform under the laws of this state. The term includes taking an acknowledgment, administering an oath or affirmation, taking a verification on oath or affirmation, witnessing or attesting a signature, certifying or attesting a copy, and noting a protest of a negotiable instrument;

            (4)    "Notarial officer," a notary public or other person authorized to perform a notarial act;

            (5)    "Verification on oath or affirmation," a declaration, made by a person on oath or affirmation before a notarial officer, that a statement in a document is true.
    Section 2. That chapter 18-1 be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read:

    A notarial officer in this state, while located in this state, may perform by means of communication technology a notarial act executed on a document by a person who appears before, but is not in the physical presence of the notarial officer if the notarial officer:

            (1)    Has personal knowledge of the identity of a person through dealings sufficient to provide reasonable certainty that the person has the identity being claimed;

            (2)    Affixes the notarial officer's signature to the original tangible document executed by the person;

            (3)    Indicates in the notarial certificate the remote location of the person executing the document;

            (4)    Indicates in the notarial certificate that the notarial act involved a statement made or a signature executed by a person not in the physical presence of the notarial officer,

but appearing by means of communication technology; and

            (5)    Is able reasonably to confirm that the document before the notarial officer is the same document in which the person made the statement or on which the person executed a signature.
    Section 3. That § 18-1-3.1 be amended to read:
    18-1-3.1. Each notary public A notarial officer shall have a seal which that shall be used for the purpose of acknowledging documents a document. The seal shall be of a type approved by the secretary of state and shall contain at least the following:

            (1)    The notary's notarial officer's name;

            (2)    The words, South Dakota;

            (3)    The words, notary public; and

            (4)    A border surrounding the imprint.

    In addition, A seal may be a rubber stamp or a physical device capable of affixing to or embossing on a tangible document. A rubber stamp seals seal shall have contain the word, seal.

    If a seal is used by a notary public, the notary public shall write, or print by a device made for such printing, below the seal's imprint or print and if not provided by the form, the words, my commission expires, and shall provide a date therefor A notarial officer shall indicate the date on which the notarial officer's commission expires below the seal under this section.
    Section 4. That § 18-1-7 be amended to read:
    18-1-7. A notary public person who is personally interested directly or indirectly, or as a stockholder, officer, agent, attorney, or employee of any other person or party to any a transaction concerning which he the person is exercising any performing the function of his office as such a notary public, may make any certificates certificate, take any acknowledgments acknowledgment, administer any oaths oath, or do any other official acts act as such a notary

public with the same legal force and effect as if he the person had no such interest except that he cannot do any of such things in connection with any interest, provided the instrument which shows or document does not show upon its face that he the person is a principal party thereto to the instrument or document.
    Section 5. That § 18-1-11 be amended to read:
    18-1-11. It is a Class 2 misdemeanor for any notary public to affix his A person is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor if the person is a notarial officer who affixes the person's official signature to documents when any document when the parties to the transaction memorialized in the document have not appeared before him the person either in-person or in accordance with section 2 of this Act.
    Section 6. That § 18-1-12.1 be amended to read:
    18-1-12.1. It is A person is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for a if the person to act as a notary public or to affix a signature to a document as a notary public if the person has not first obtained performs a notarial act on any document without first obtaining a commission from the secretary of state pursuant to this chapter under § 18-1-4.
    Section 7. That § 18-4-10 be amended to read:
    18-4-10. The acknowledgment of an instrument performed in the presence of a person making the acknowledgment must not be taken unless the officer taking it knows or has satisfactory evidence on the oath or affirmation of a credible witness, that the person making such acknowledgment is the individual who is described in and who executed the instrument; or, if executed by a corporation, that the person making such acknowledgment is an officer of the corporation authorized to execute the instrument.