Appointment and qualifications

Study notes · 50 practice questions · 30 in the mock pool

Getting appointed

• Residency or a New York office or place of business — a nonresident with a New York office qualifies.
• What the Secretary of State must be satisfied of: good moral character, the equivalent of a common school education, and familiarity with the duties.
• Attorneys admitted in New York, and court clerks appointed after the Civil Service promotional examination, are appointed without the examination.
• The $60 application, the oath of office executed before a person authorized to administer an oath, and the pass slip.
• The four-year term, the 90-day reappointment window, and the waiver of qualifying requirements before expiry or within six months after it.

What vacates a commission

• A resident who moves out of state but keeps a New York office does not vacate; one who keeps no office does.
• A nonresident who ceases to have a New York office vacates the office.
• An attorney admitted here whose law office is in the state is deemed a resident of the county of that office.
• Accepting the office makes the Secretary of State the person on whom process may be served for a nonresident.

The county clerk

• The Secretary of State forwards the commission, oath and signature to the county clerk, with $20 apportioned from the fee, by the tenth of the following month.
• The clerk indexes them, and the public verifies a notary's official signature there.
• Certificate of official character, $1 — for notaries who sign regularly in other counties.
• Authentication, $3 — normally for documents used outside the state; the apostille sits on top of it.

Eligibility oddities worth knowing

• A member of the legislature may be appointed; a sheriff may not hold another office.
• A commissioner or inspector of elections is eligible.
• Public Officers Law 15: acting before the oath is filed is a misdemeanor, because a notary is a public officer.
• County Law 534: every county clerk designates at least one staff notary who serves the public free of charge.