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Ohio Not Yet Complying With Federal License Law
By: Statehouse News Bureau
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The federal government wants Ohio to change its driver’s licenses and government issued ID’s but state leaders say they are not going to do that…..at least not now. In an interview with Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles, Joe Andrews with the bureau of motor vehicles explains why Ohio is not complying with the new federal ID law for right now.
“The issue was the federal government wanted us to comply with the real ID act and in order to do that, we would be required to take everyone’s picture who applied for a driver’s license or ID and place them in a database," Andrews said. "Along with that picture, we would have to have their social security card and their birth certificate. All of those documents would be photographed and placed into a database. So far we have chosen not to do that because there is so much push back on the government gathering information about people that we are trying to look at some alternative methods for doing that.”
“Like what?” Ingles responded.
“Well I don’t know right now," Andrews said. "That’s some of the things that we are looking at. We don’t think the government or TSA is going to keep anyone from getting on an airplane because they don’t have this real i-d compliant driver’s license but they may have to jump through some hoops that some other folks who actually have that compliant driver’s licenses don’t have to jump through.”
Ingles: “How many other states have these real i.d. compliant driver’s licenses?”
"Well I believe 15 states have completely opted out," Andrews said. "But then again, we haven’t necessarily opted out. We are just holding off to see what other kinds of alternatives we have.”
The Real IDs driver’s licenses are part of a 2005 law that came about after authorities learned the hijackers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks had used falsified state identification documents.