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Posted on Thu, Apr. 21, 2005
North Carolina
STATE NEWS IN BRIEF
RALEIGH

Bill would move some DMV services online

Motorists could renew their driver's licenses on the Internet and all applicants would start getting licenses by mail in a measure approved Wednesday by a House transportation panel.

The bill would eliminate the need for all Division of Motor Vehicles offices to be equipped with card-making machines. Instead, licenses and permits would be generated at a centralized location.

DMV offices would issue a temporary driving certificate good for 10 days. The temporary certificate would not be usable as an identification card.

The 10-day period also would give DMV officials a chance to determine whether a motorist is trying to generate a false identification or steal someone else's identity.

Committee members delayed a previous version of the bill last month after concerns were raised that terrorists would be able to obtain phony permits through Internet renewal and the current DMV system.

Wayne Hurder, the head of the DMV's driver-licensing section, said the proposed system would allow agency officials to investigate if several licenses were being mailed to the same post office box.

Driver's licenses have become part of a contentious, two-pronged debate in North Carolina over national security and the effect illegal immigration is having on the state. Last year, the DMV stopped issuing licenses to people holding several forms of foreign identification, including most foreign birth certificates and a popular Mexican identification card known as the matricula consular.

The current proposal would require the DMV to set expiration dates for the licenses of foreign nationals studying in the United States to the same day their student visas expire.

The cost of mailing licenses to millions of drivers would be more than recouped by the savings from Internet renewals and reduced demand for expensive DMV equipment.

The DMV already allows drivers to go online to renew their license tags and obtain duplicate licenses.