Recently the National Notary Association published another model notary act, this one dealing with electronic notarizations. It's called the Model Electronic Notarization Act of 2017 referred to as MENA. A very good article about this Act has appeared on page 10 of The National Notary Magazine put out by the NNA.
While I haven't read the Act in it's entirety I believe that this article is a very good introduction to the new act and explains the basics of it. What I hope happens is that Notaries Public read the article and the Act in order to learn what is coming in the future.
In regards to electronic notarizations, I am skeptical of moving towards using this technology to do notarizations. What I am most concerned about is the lack of personal physical appearance when a notarization is being done. I recently wrote a blog post on Personal Appearance and its importance to the notarization process.
With electronic notarizations (where the client is not physically present but communicating via audio-visual means), I believe that there is a possibility for improper identification. One method for identification in this situation is where the client answers questions which only the client is supposed to know the answer. This is a fair way to identify someone but there are drawbacks. The answers to those questions may possibly be found online from postings, messages, or picture information posted on social media. A lot of personal information is being shared these days online. Very good authentication needs to be done. There is also the issue of the quality of the audio-visual connection.
I do believe that we need to move with the times and incorporate new technologies into the work that Notaries Public do. I think notarization of electronic documents might be a first step. I have worked with electronic signatures and I do believe that the are valid in a court of law. There already is a way for a notary to "stamp" a document with an electronic notary stamp. I might explore that as a new avenue of notarizations that I might do. The new MENA put out by the National Notary Association is a good first step but we need to go slowly so that we don't lose sight of why notarizations are done, which is fraud prevention and validation of signature.