One of the main functions of the Secretary of State’s Office is to act as the “Competent Authority” to certify public records issued by state and local officials, by means of Apostilles or Authentications, that will be sent to or used in foreign countries. In order to do this, we have to verify the signature and seal of the person who signs the record or certified copy of the official record.
At the beginning of every year, our office sends out new forms to collect exemplars of the signatures of the all the individuals in every Clerk of District Court office, Clerk and Recorders’ office and the office of Vital Records who are authorized to sign official records. We keep these files for five years and refer to them daily.
If your staff changes during the year, we ask that you update your forms by either “adding” or “deleting” the names of the people who are new or who are no longer authorized to sign official records. The forms can be emailed to us.
Please click on the appropriate button at the top of this page to access the form for changes during the year.
We appreciate your cooperation.