New Mexico Notary Journal Requirements — Permanently Bound, Numbered Pages
Yes. New Mexico requires every notary to chronicle all notarial acts in a journal, and a journal kept on paper must be permanently bound with numbered pages, with one active journal at a time. Printed loose pages do not satisfy New Mexico law.
The rule: New Mexico adopted the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (NMSA chapter 14, article 14A), which carries the journal duty and the uniform format rule: a tangible journal must be a permanent, bound register with numbered pages, and an electronic journal must be in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. The Secretary of State administers the notary program and publishes the current guidance.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each New Mexico entry must include
The date and time of the act, a description of the record and the type of act, the name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed, how the signer was identified, and the fee charged.
Retention and the journal's life after the commission
The journal is retained for ten years after the last notarial act chronicled in it. A lost or stolen journal is promptly reported to the Secretary of State. When a commission ends by resignation, revocation, or suspension, the notary retains the journal under that same ten-year rule. And a notarial officer licensed to practice law keeps a journal only when performing notarial acts for members of the public unrelated to an established attorney-client relationship (NMSA § 14-14A-18).
What New Mexico notaries should buy
A bound journal with numbered pages from any notary supplier, or a compliant electronic journal. Nothing else satisfies the statute for the journal itself. One active journal at a time holds every act until it fills; then the next register begins.
Questions New Mexico notaries ask
When did New Mexico start requiring journals? With its adoption of the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts. The duty applies to New Mexico notaries regardless of when they were commissioned.
Can I keep two New Mexico journals at once? In one combination. The rule is one journal at a time for all acts, and the statute then allows a journal on a tangible medium for tangible records alongside an electronic journal for electronic records (NMSA § 14-14A-18(B)).
Can I keep my New Mexico journal electronically? Yes, in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. The Secretary of State's rules add the details: securely stored, recoverable after a software malfunction or computer crash, tamper evident, with entries available in a PDF format (12.9.3.15 NMAC). Loose printed pages qualify as neither a bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Where do I check the current New Mexico rules? The New Mexico Secretary of State publishes notary guidance and rules, and that office is the authority on the details.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages, and printed pages do not comply with New Mexico's bound-register rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. New Mexico notaries: buy the bound book or a compliant electronic journal.
Update, September 2026: we make a bound edition now. The Prep & Print bound journal is on Amazon — permanently bound, one signing per two-page spread, preprinted page and entry numbers, signature and thumbprint boxes, in five cover colors.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: NMSA § 14-14A-18 (journal); 12.9.3 NMAC; New Mexico SOS Notarial Officer Handbook. General information, not legal advice.
