There’s been a bit of traffic on the net recently regarding the news that Maine is planning to resist the RealID mandate to tighten its drivers license issuing process to paranoid levels. Quoting a Washington Post article on the subject:
Maine lawmakers passed a resolution urging repeal of the Real ID Act, which would create a national digital identification system by 2008. The lawmakers said it would cost Maine about $185 million, fail to boost security and put people at greater risk of identity theft.
The ID act sets national standards for licenses which will have to include a digital photo, anti-counterfeiting features and machine-readable technology.
States will have to verify documents presented with license applications such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and utility bills, and will have to link their license databases so they can all be accessed as a single network.
States also will have to verify that a person applying for a license is in the country legally. States will be able to issue separate credentials to illegal aliens so that they will still be able to drive.
Once Real ID is fully implemented, noncompliant drivers licenses will not be acceptable for entry into federal buildings or for air travel.
Montana appears to be the next state to push against Real ID. Quoting 27B/6:
Bill Scannell, communicationd director for the Identity project and a longtime Anti-REAL-ID activist, was in Montana this week talking to Montana legislators who are working on two different anti-REAL-ID bills, and says the governor’s chief of staff promised the governor would sign both.
Whenever I revisit the Real ID issue, I tend to waffle. Consider:
- If you’re going to have de-facto identity cards (which is what drivers licenses have become), some effort ought to be put into verifying the particulars of the applicant for the card.
- If the system is broken it ought to be fixed.
- The changes believed to fix the problem are expensive; who’s going to pay for it (or: in which tax bill will the taxpayers pay for it)?
- Are the proposed fixes even going to fix the problem?
As near as I can tell, any identity system is going to be circumventable by those motivated enough to circumvent it. You have to begin to wonder if the burden being imposed on normal, average, mostly-law-abiding citizens is worth the marginal reduction in folks circumventing the system.
If you’re looking for nearly foolproof, you’d have to rely on biometrics, or perhaps a tattoo on the forehead or back of your hand….and that creates a whole host of other concerns and complications, I think.