A signer presents a California driver's license that expired eight years ago. Under California law the notary may:

California draws the identification line at currency of the document rather than at whether the notary believes the person is who they say they are. Acceptable identification must be current, or issued within the past five years, which means a driver's license eight years expired fails on its face regardless of how well the photograph matches. The rule exists because the value of an identification document lies in the issuing authority's recent verification of the holder — a document long expired attests to what an agency confirmed years ago and may have since revoked or superseded. The notary's own judgment about resemblance cannot substitute, since that judgment is exactly what the documentary standard replaces. Nor can two inadequate documents combine into one adequate one. When a signer has no qualifying identification, California provides a defined alternative: one credible witness personally known to the notary and identified by acceptable identification, or two credible witnesses identified by acceptable identification.

California requires identification to be current or issued within the past five years, so a document eight years expired cannot be accepted.

California requires identification documents to be current or issued within the past five years. Where a signer lacks qualifying identification, credible witnesses may be used under defined conditions.

Current or Within Five. The photograph looking right is not the test.

A document expired but issued within the past five years is acceptable. It is the issue date that rescues it, not the expiration.

• •Accepting an old document because the photograph matches
• •Looking only at the expiration date and not the issue date
• •Combining two deficient documents