What I hope to achieve is a little bit of education to the public and others on Wisconsin Notary Law and Procedure.  I have been a Wisconsin Notary for over 6 years and take great pride in knowing the law.  I feel it is important as I am commissioned by the State of Wisconsin to be a public official.  There are responsibilities that a Notary needs to know in order to effectively perform their duties.  

Lets start with what is a Wisconsin Notary? Quoted from our Notary Pamphlet
"A notary public is an individual issued an appointment by the Governor or Department of 
Financial Institutions to serve the public as an impartial witness, performing notarial acts as are allowed or required by law"

Notarial Acts for the Wisconsin Notary are:

• Taking an Acknowledgment
  
• Administering an Oath or Affirmation
• Taking a Verification upon Oath or Affirmation
• Witnessing or Attesting a Signature
• Certifying or Attesting a copy of a document or other item
• Noting a protest of a Negotiable Instrument

Parts of the Notary Act are:

• The person who is having their signature notarized MUST appear in front of the Notary
• Positively ID the person who is having their signature Notarized
• Determine the person signing the document is signing of their own free will and signing the document for the purposes contained within the document.  For a Sworn Document, the person swears or affirms the contents of the document are correct or true which is by the Notary administering an Oath or Affirmation and the person confirms with a Yes or No 
• The Notary then completes the Notary Act with a Notarial Certificate with the correct verbiage for the act performed

My notes: In the State of Wisconsin, we are not required to keep a Notary Journal although it is recommended.  A Notary Journal is a record of all Notarial Events that a Notary performs.  I do keep one as I do many Notarizations and feel it is important should the Notarization ever become a legal issue.

To positively identify someone, the Identification Document should not be expired, should be readable, with a picture of the person, birth-date, and a signature. 

Identification Documents I use are:

• State Drivers License
• State Identification Card
• Passport
• Current Military ID