(a) The Secretary of State shall develop a program to facilitate the administration of an electronic process for the recordation of filing activities by business and nonprofit entities required under Title 10A. A county may participate in the program in accordance with this section. Under the program, the Secretary of State may contract with a vendor to provide electronic processing services which may include, but are not limited to, the online filing of forms, online recording, payment of fees through credit or debit cards, and any other service related to the administration of the electronic process, as determined by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may also develop a certification process to allow third parties to provide these electronic processing services. All recording fees, whether established by general law, general law of local application, or local law, shall be collected by the vendor and the fees, applicable to the county, including all data associated with the local recording fees, shall be remitted by the vendor to each participating county no less than twice per month.
(b) A county may participate in the program by written agreement between the county commission, judge of probate, and the Secretary of State. Any agreement shall be a voluntary decision made exclusively by the county. The Secretary of State or the applicable county may terminate an agreement at any time upon 120 days' written notice. Upon written notice of termination, the Secretary of State shall instruct the electronic process vendor that it shall finalize and transmit all final recording fees collected, and all data related thereto, to the applicable county not more than 30 days after the date on which use of the electronic system ceases.
(c) The cooperation between the Secretary of State and a county shall be at no additional cost to the county or the state.
(d) The cooperation between the Secretary of State and a county as provided for in this section shall satisfy any and all fee and filing requirements whether prescribed by general law, general law of local application, or local law applicable to the participating county, and, furthermore, fulfill any and all statutory requirements of a county commission, judge of probate, and the Secretary of State as it relates to filing activities of business entities.
(e) A judge of probate may continue to provide filing services pursuant to current procedures and is in no way bound or obligated to participate in the electronic process for the recordation of filing activities as provided for by this section.
Last modified: May 3, 2021