In Baja California, the College of Notaries favors a route to a notary’s patent made up of an initial exam and an exam by competition. In October 2019, the weekly ZETA reported that Governor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid had named a notary directly, as a 2015 reform allowed.
The president of the state’s College of Notaries said that the new notary “no se sometió al concurso de oposición” (did not take part in the competitive exam).
In November 2019, the state government ordered the withdrawal of five patents that the former governor had granted before the end of his term. It cited the principle of equality in Article 1 of the federal Constitution.