Office of the Secretary of State

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CERTIFICATIONS ~ MANUAL SIGNATURES

Any authorized officer may file a manual signature form with the Office of the Secretary of State. An authorized officer is defined as any official of the State, or any of its political subdivisions, whose signature to a public security or instrument of payment is required or permitted. After filing, the official may execute with a facsimile signature instead of a manual signature:

• any public security, if the signature of at least an authorized officer is manually subscribed; and
• any instrument of payment.

If a public security is required to be manually signed by an agent, any other signature required may be a facsimile signature.

After filing with the Secretary of State, the facsimile signature of the authorized officer has the same legal effect as the manual signature.

Statutory Authority: State Finance and Procurement Article, §2-301 et. seq. of the Annotated Code of Maryland