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New Ohio drivers licenses coming in January
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 2, 2012
The state of Ohio will roll out new driver’s licenses starting in January, in conformance with the federal Real ID Act of 2005. The Real ID Act is a part of the national homeland security efforts that followed after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Ohio version of this latest attempt at a nationally consistent identification card will be called “Safe ID.”
“The idea is that this will be a safer and more secure form of identification in two ways,” said Geoff Dutton, media relations director for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The first, he said, is that the new IDs will help cut down on identity theft. The second is that, “it will make it harder to create fake IDs, which will protect us both individually and as a society. “Fake IDs are the tools of both thieves and terrorists,” he said.
The new licenses (as well as the new state identification cards for those who do not have a driver’s license) will be considerably different form the current variety, said Dutton. “The colors will be different. The signature will be raised.”
They will also not be laminated but instead will be made out of a thinner, bendable plastic material.
What the new IDs will not have, said Dutton, is any radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, or any other sort of computer chip, unlike the federal counterparts like the Passcard. They will have the familiar magnetic strip that the current licenses display.
“The new IDs will have other security features that will be difficult to duplicate,” said Dutton. “The colors and any number of other elements in the card will be different.”
The production process for the new identification will also be considerably different from the current process, in which the state’s deputy registrars take the photo and print and laminate the license while the applicant is in that office.
The new process, said Dutton, still uses the local license bureau to collect identification from the applicant and take the photo, but that is where the new process will verge off. After the application and photo are taken locally, the deputy registrar’s office will transmit the data to one central, secure manufacturing location.
The applicant will be given a receipt that will act as a temporary identification, said Dutton. The new license should then arrive in about four weeks, he said.
To conform with the requirements of the Real ID Act, the state will begin processing of these new IDs in January 2013. They are expected to completely replace the current IDs by December 2017. Anyone can obtain a Safe ID replacement at any time, starting in mid-January, whether or not that person’s current identification has expired.
New IDs also bring with them the need to essentially reapply for a driver’s license.
Applying for a Safe ID, said Dutton, “has the same requirement as applying for a license for the first time. It will not be the same as it is now, where you can just keep reapplying for a license using your old license. You will have to provide the same documents as you did when you applied for your initial identification.”
The list of those documents acceptable for this process includes current license, passport, birth certificate or court order and numerous other like documents. The complete list is posted at www.bmv.ohio.gov/acceptable_id_documents.stm.
Ohio is one of 33 states who are or who plan to be in conformance with the Real ID Act by January. Until then, said Dutton, the state lists itself in “substantial compliance” with that Act, which means that his department, “has done everything that we need to do to this point.” In January, he said, the state will be in full compliance.
At some point, a Real ID-compliant identification will be necessary to be able to enter a federal building and will also be required for some other functions.
Fifteen states have passed legislation stating that they will not comply with the Real ID requirements, while another 10 states have passed legislation disapproving of that law. Numerous groups from all American political spectrums have come out against conforming to this law.
It remains to be seen if, indeed, the Real ID becomes the kind of national identification card that the law is trying to create. In the meantime, starting in January, all new Ohio licenses and state IDs will be Real ID-compliant.