Driven to distraction: license requirements frustrate residents
Crestview resident Paul Mack didn’t think anything of renewing his driver’s license as he has done many times before.
He was floored to discover he needed an original birth certificate or passport, proof of Social Security and two items mailed to his home address.
“It’s crazy,” Mack said. “It’s not like they can’t pull you up in the system and see that you’ve been here for 25 years.”
A new law that went into effect Jan. 1 makes it much more difficult for Florida drivers to renew their licenses or obtain a new one. The new law also applies to state issued ID cards.
The impetus is the federal Real ID Act of 2005 passed by Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to make it more difficult to obtain a drivers license.
“I understand the concept but they are going about it the wrong way,” Mack said.
Proponents say the law is an essential tool in the war on terror and point to a 911/Commission report that revealed all but one of the terrorists had obtained a state issued drivers license.
The law has come under fire from many state governors, however, who complain it is an unfunded mandate too costly to implement that turns state department of motor vehicle workers into federal immigration officials who must verify the citizenship status of its drivers.
Others have derided the law as a means to implement a national identity card and database. As the law is written, all U.S. citizens would eventually be required to possess a federally approved Real ID to board a commercial flight, enter a federal building or visit a national park.
Forty-six states failed to meet the Dec. 31, 2009 deadline for implementation of the law, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to extend the deadline.
Florida was among a handful of states to conform.
Now many Florida residents are making multiple trips to their local drivers license office to comply with the law.
Crestview resident Dennis Krester, 22, is staying with someone else and has been frustrated with attempts to provide the documents needed to prove his residency.
“Now they are saying they want something signed verifying that I live at that address,” Krester said on his latest trip to the driver’s license office in Crestview. “It’s crazy. They know who I am. I’m in the system.”
Drivers who have married or divorced will have to show documents to prove that too.
And while obtaining a Social Security card and residency requirements can be frustrating, obtaining a certified birth certificate – hospital duplicates are not accepted – can be impossible if the original was lost or destroyed and there is no backup copy in state archives, critics complain.
Local drivers license offices can apply for an exemption on behalf of a driver who can’t provide all the documentation but the law makes it difficult for them to do so.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has posted information online to help drivers identify what they will need.
Crestview resident Mary McGraw did her research online before renewing her driver’s license.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” McGraw said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Holt resident Donna Marie Anderson said, however, she had to jump through all kinds of hoops to obtain the marriage certificate and other identification needed to renew her license.
“I can’t believe it,” Anderson said. “It’s been so frustrating.”
What you will need:
1) Identification – A certified U.S. birth certificate (hospital birth certificates are not accepted); a valid U.S. passport; a consular Report of Birth Abroad; a certificate of Naturalization; or a certificate of Citizenship.
2) Proof of Social Security number – Social Security card, W-2 form, paycheck or any 1099 form.
3) Proof of Residential address – Two items mailed to you that contain your address. Acceptable are a mortgage statement, voter ID card, a utility bill or a car insurance policy.
For more information about requirements, go online to www.GatherGoGet.com.
