The Colorado notary exam is an open-book test you complete individually, and you pass at 80% or higher. It draws on RULONA, two named statute articles and the Secretary of State's Official Notary Handbook. Complete approved training and the exam no more than 90 days before applying or renewing, then study the acts, certificates, journals, identification rules and prohibitions below.
What the exam covers and how it runs
The Colorado Notary Public Examination is open book, taken individually, and passed at 80% or higher, testing four sources the notary rules name.
The Secretary of State's training page states that this is an open book examination. You may use your notary training course materials and RULONA itself. It must be completed individually, and the page warns that reports of collaboration can cost you the commission or the appointment. At the end you can review the questions you answered incorrectly, and at 80% or higher you can save or print a certificate of successful completion that must accompany your application or renewal.
The rules are more specific about content than most exam guides. Rule 2.1.7 says the open book examination tests your understanding of notary duties contained in Title 24, Article 21, Part 5 (RULONA), Title 38, Article 30 (Titles and Interests), Title 1, Article 40 (Initiative and Referendum), and the Official Notary Handbook.
Neither the training page nor the notary rules states how many questions the exam contains or imposes a fixed time limit. The training page lists roughly one hour as an estimated pacing figure for the module, not a countdown you must beat.
Official sources: Tutorials & Training, Colorado Secretary of State — Notary section: Colorado Notary Public Examination - RULONA; Colorado Notary Public Training - RULONA; Colorado Remote Notary Training & Exam - RULONA; Colorado Notary Program Rules, 8 CCR 1505-11, as adopted 10/09/2024 — Rule 1.9, Rule 2.1, Rule 5.2
Training and timing for initial and renewal applicants
Complete an approved training course and pass the exam no more than 90 days before you apply for a commission or renew one.
Rule 1.9 defines a new applicant as someone seeking a Colorado commission for the first time, or a formerly commissioned notary whose commission has been expired for more than 30 days. New applicants must complete training and pass the exam within 90 days before applying, and renewing notaries must complete the renewal training and pass the exam within 90 days before renewing.
The Secretary of State's own eLearning course covers the training requirement. It is estimated at about four hours and runs seven modules: the notary role, satisfactory evidence, notarial acts, electronic notarization, the journal and official stamp, petition circulators and other information, and application requirements. Each new and renewing notary must show proof of training when applying or renewing.
Two details protect you from wasted effort. The Secretary of State grants credit only for courses offered by an approved vendor, an approved course provider, or the Secretary of State itself. And a certificate of successful completion of an approved course expires 90 days after issuance, so the timing rules reinforce each other: schedule the course, then the exam, then the filing, inside the same window.
Official sources: Tutorials & Training, Colorado Secretary of State — Notary section: Colorado Notary Public Examination - RULONA; Colorado Notary Public Training - RULONA; Colorado Remote Notary Training & Exam - RULONA; Colorado Notary Program Rules, 8 CCR 1505-11, as adopted 10/09/2024 — Rule 1.9, Rule 2.1, Rule 5.2
The notarial acts you must keep straight
The main acts are acknowledgments, oaths and affirmations, signature witnessing and copy certification. Learn what event each certificate records.
The handbook lists the four main powers as acknowledgments, administering oaths and affirmations, copy certifications, and witnessing or attesting signatures. A fifth power, noting a protest of a negotiable instrument, belongs only to notaries employed by a financial institution acting within that employment.
The distinction candidates most often blur is acknowledgment versus verification on oath. An acknowledgment covers a signer who states they already executed the record; the certificate says the record was acknowledged before you, and no oath is involved. A verification on oath or affirmation, the certificate most people call a jurat, requires you to administer an oath or affirmation, hear the signer affirm to the document and their identity, watch them sign in your physical presence, and then complete the certificate that reads signed and sworn or affirmed before you.
For a copy certification you must see the original, confirm the copy is exact, and verify that certifying it is permitted at all. Colorado bars certifying copies of records obtainable from the clerk and recorder, the Secretary of State, the state archives, or vital records, so a Colorado-issued birth certificate is off limits, while a birth certificate from another state may be certified.
One more rule ties the acts together: you do not choose which act a document needs. If the paper has no preprinted certificate, ask the client which act is being requested; the requesting party or the document's recipient can tell them. Deciding it yourself is treated as the unauthorized practice of law.
The examination content also reaches beyond RULONA, which is why the rules add Title 38, Article 30 and Title 1, Article 40 to the study list. Colorado's training includes a module on notarizing petition circulator affidavits, so expect election-related notarization rules in the material.
Practice question
You are a commissioned Colorado notary. On Monday, a client sitting in your office presents a current Colorado driver's license and two documents. Document A is a deed she signed last week; its preprinted certificate reads that the record was acknowledged before the notary. Document B is an affidavit whose certificate reads that it was signed and sworn or affirmed before the notary; she has not signed it yet. In an alternative version of the affidavit request, she leaves without having it notarized on Monday, signs it at home and returns on Tuesday asking you to just stamp it. What must you do for each document on Monday, and how do you handle Tuesday's request? Assume the identification matches the signer, she understands the documents and is acting willingly, no disqualifying interest or other prohibition applies, and each document is otherwise complete.
Show answer
For Document A, take an acknowledgment: record the transaction in your journal, identify her with the driver's license, have her acknowledge in your physical presence that she signed the deed, and complete the certificate. No oath is involved. For Document B on Monday, perform a verification on oath or affirmation: journal entry, identification, then administer an oath or affirmation, watch her sign in your physical presence, and complete the certificate. On Tuesday, do not stamp the home-signed affidavit. Have her re-sign it in front of you and administer the oath or affirmation, because the certificate would otherwise falsely state that she signed and swore in your presence.
RULONA requires the officer taking an acknowledgment to determine identity from personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence, and the officer taking a verification on oath to do the same before the statement is verified. Section 24-21-506 requires the individual to appear personally, meaning close enough to see, hear, communicate and exchange credentials, or through a compliant remote session. A current Colorado driver's license, or one expired no more than a year, is satisfactory evidence. The journal statute requires an entry for every notarial act. Because the Tuesday signature happened outside your presence, certifying it would misstate the event, so the act must be redone in front of you or not at all.
Official sources: Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, C.R.S. 24-21-501 et seq. (current December 2025) — Sections 24-21-504 through 24-21-530
Identifying signers: the satisfactory evidence paths
Colorado gives you four identification paths: personal knowledge, core identity documents, other satisfactory government IDs, and a credible witness's sworn statement.
A passport, driver's license, or government-issued non-driver ID that is current, or expired no more than one year, is among the expressly listed forms of satisfactory evidence, and the list includes foreign passports and licenses. Other government-issued IDs within the same age window work if they carry the person's signature or photograph and are satisfactory to you, which leaves room for things like county jail IDs when you are convinced they are legitimate.
A credible witness can identify a signer who lacks documents. The witness must personally appear and provide a verification on oath or affirmation about the signer's identity, and the witness must either be personally known to you or identified with the same core documents. For remote notarizations the rules tighten: the credible witness must personally know both you and the remotely located individual.
Personal knowledge remains a full path if you know the individual through dealings sufficient to give reasonable certainty of identity. Whichever path you use, record it: the journal must note whether identity rested on personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence, with a description of the method and credential.
Official sources: Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, C.R.S. 24-21-501 et seq. (current December 2025) — Sections 24-21-504 through 24-21-530
Certificates, journals, stamps and fees
Every act needs a complete certificate, a journal entry, a compliant rectangular stamp, and a fee that stays at or below the statutory caps.
The certificate must be signed and dated by you at the time of the act, identify the county and state where it was performed, state the title of office, and carry your official stamp. On paper records the certificate must be part of the record or securely attached to it, and a stamp should never appear without a complete certificate. Your signature must match the one on file, and the commission expiration date on the stamp must match your current commission certificate exactly.
The journal records every notarial act, including acts with no signature such as copy certifications and oral oaths. Each entry needs the date and time, a description of the record and act type, the full name and address of each person, each person's signature, how you identified them, and the fee charged. If an interpreter helped, add the interpreter's full name, address and credential number. Keep the journal under your exclusive control, and retain it for ten years after the last act recorded in it.
The official stamp is rectangular, rubber-stamped rather than embossed, and must show your name exactly as commissioned, your identification number, your commission expiration date, and the words State of Colorado and Notary Public. Providing, keeping or using an embosser is illegal.
Fees are capped at 15 dollars per document, or 25 dollars when you apply an electronic signature, including for remote notarizations. If you charge, tell the customer before the act and provide a written list of the fees, such as a receipt or itemized invoice; failing to provide it can make the charge presumed to exceed the cap.
Official sources: Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, C.R.S. 24-21-501 et seq. (current December 2025) — Sections 24-21-504 through 24-21-530
Prohibited conduct to know cold
The material concentrates on a cluster of hard prohibitions: absent signers, blank documents, disqualifying interests, and any drift into legal or immigration services.
For a traditional in-person act, the signer must appear before you as required for that act. A separately authorized remote session must follow the remote rules. The handbook also addresses blank documents and disqualifying interests. Under RULONA, an act performed with a disqualifying interest is voidable; that is not the same as saying every such act is automatically void.
The practice-of-law boundary is broad. Unless you are an attorney you may not advise on the transaction, draft or complete legal records, or claim immigration expertise, and using the phrase notario or notario publico in advertising is specifically banned. Advertising must not suggest powers a notary does not hold.
Background and status rules matter for the application itself. Misstating or omitting facts on the application, a felony conviction at any time, or a misdemeanor involving dishonesty within the last five years are grounds for denial or discipline, and the rules define dishonesty misdemeanors to include fraud, perjury, theft, forgery and similar offenses. Other named prohibitions include withholding a customer's original record, willful misuse of the journal or stamp, and charging over the fee caps.
Official sources: Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, C.R.S. 24-21-501 et seq. (current December 2025) — Sections 24-21-504 through 24-21-530
Electronic and remote notarization are separate tracks
Passing the general examination is one step toward commissioning. In-person electronic notarization and remote notarization have additional requirements; the remote track includes separate training and an examination.
Electronic notarization keeps everything familiar about presence: you and the signer are in the same room, but the record stays electronic and is signed electronically. You must be certified before performing one, select tamper-evident technology, and use a Document Authentication Number issued by the Secretary of State with every electronic signature. The Secretary of State offers a short eNotary tutorial covering the application and the differences from remote work.
Remote notarization is its own authorization. Only a currently commissioned Colorado notary with Active status may register, and you must complete the separate remote notary training and exam, apply with proof of completion, and select at least one approved remote notarization system provider. The Secretary of State estimates that course at about two hours.
Official sources: Tutorials & Training, Colorado Secretary of State — Notary section: Colorado Notary Public Examination - RULONA; Colorado Notary Public Training - RULONA; Colorado Remote Notary Training & Exam - RULONA; Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Notary Program Rules, 8 CCR 1505-11, as adopted 10/09/2024 — Rule 1.9, Rule 2.1, Rule 5.2
A preparation plan matched to the named sources
Take the official course first, then read RULONA and the handbook directly, because those are the documents the open-book exam actually draws on.
Complete approved training; the Secretary of State's eLearning course is one option, with seven modules covering notary duties and the application process. Take notes as the course suggests; you can use your training materials during the exam itself.
Then read the primary sources: the RULONA statute, the Official Notary Handbook, and study the two additional statute articles named in Rule 2.1.7. The handbook itself states that where it and the statute disagree, the statute controls, so check anything dated against the current law. The handbook's appendices provide useful practice material: sample notarial certificates, a credible witness guide, and step-by-step checklists for each act and for remote sessions.
Drill the decision chain until it is automatic: name the act, confirm the identification path, hear or watch what the act requires in your presence, and picture the journal entry and certificate wording that record it. Finish with the prohibited-conduct list, the fee caps, and the 90-day timing rule, then schedule the exam inside your window and file with your certificate in hand.
- Complete approved training and save the certificate; it expires 90 days after issuance.
- Read RULONA and the handbook cover to cover; keep both open during the open-book exam
- Memorize the certificate markers: acknowledged versus signed and sworn or affirmed
- Practice the journal fields until each required element is familiar
- Review the prohibited-act list and the 15 and 25 dollar fee caps
Official sources: Tutorials & Training, Colorado Secretary of State — Notary section: Colorado Notary Public Examination - RULONA; Colorado Notary Public Training - RULONA; Colorado Remote Notary Training & Exam - RULONA; Colorado Notary Handbook, revised April 24, 2024 — Powers, certificates, journal, prohibitions, electronic and remote notarization, fees; Colorado Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, C.R.S. 24-21-501 et seq. (current December 2025) — Sections 24-21-504 through 24-21-530
Official sources
Facts checked against official Colorado Secretary of State sources: