That would seem to make sense, but it wouldn't fly here. The way our law has been modified in recent years, we're not allowed to modify the wording of the certificate in any way. In fact, there's at least one county that has been rejecting certificates where the pronouns are personalized. In other words, if there's one signer who is a female and the certificate is typed with just "she" instead of "he/she/they", it's not accepted! (Personally, I think that's a bit extreme, but they didn't ask me. LOL!)
I think what I'd do is draw a line under "he/she" and a line through "they". Those who circle the correct pronoun instead of underlining it can circle both, if they want. At least that way, it's clear that it's one person vs. more than one person.
BTW, I find it interesting how often lawyers (it seems) like to get creative with notary certificates. I saw one today that had the disclaimer box (the most recent change to CA certs) and all the other additions in the past five years or so, but the designer of the form decided that instead of leaving a line to enter the signer's name, to just say "the above named person", referring to another page of the document. The name wasn't even typed under the signature line. (I think there might have been a place for the signer to print it, but that's beside the point. If they were trying to avoid the addition of a separate page, they failed. Oh, it also only had a small square for placement of the notary stamp. Even with my smaller profile stamp, it never would have fit. Oh well...  |
