ANDREWS: "The issue was that 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 an ID and place them in a database. 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 be placed into a database. Thus far we have chosen not to do that because there is so much pushback on the government gathering information about people that we're trying to look at some alternative methods for doing that.”
INGLES: "Like what?”
ANDREWS: “Well I don’t know right now. That’s some of the things that we are looking at. We don’t think that the federal government or TSA is going to keep anyone from getting on an airplane because they don’t have this Real ID-compliant driver’s license. But they may have to go jump through some hoops that other folks who actually do have that compliant driver’s licenses don’t have to jump through.”
INGLES: "How many other states have these Real ID-compliant driver's licenses?”
ANDREWS: “I believe that 15 states have completely opted out. But once again, we haven’t necessarily opted out. We're just holding off to see what other kinds of alternatives we have.”
The Real ID 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.
