In the offense of failure to authenticate with a certification statement, the notary must have acted in what mental state when notarizing?

• A. Negligently
• B. Recklessly
• C. Knowingly
• D. Willfully

Answer: (C)

The key idea is the level of awareness the notary must have when performing the notarization. For this offense, the notary must act with knowledge that the certification statement is required and that they are not providing it. In other words, they must knowingly fail to authentic all elements that the certification demands—it's a deliberate awareness of the facts that make authentication necessary and a conscious choice to omit it. Merely being careless or distracted would be negligent or reckless and typically wouldn’t meet the required mental state. If the notary knowingly signs and seals while recognizing that the document needs the certification and still omits it, that satisfies the statute.