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.

Practise this part

50 practice questions on this part alone, each carrying the provision it tests, plus a weighted 40-question, 60-minute mock.