There has been discussion on social media recently about problems renewing driver’s licenses in a timely manner. Local resident Melissa Miller told the Sapulpa Times she called the Sapulpa Tag Office to ask about renewing her driver’s license. They told her she had to make an appointment and that the earliest one was October 9th.
The Sapulpa Times reached out to Dick White, owner of the Sapulpa Tag Office, for answers.
White said that the cause of the consternation felt by customers is the Real ID Act.
“You used to be able to walk up to that driver’s license window, the gal would say, ‘Is this the correct address?’ We would process it , take the picture, do the finger image for verification, collect the money, and hand [the customer] a driver’s license. That was 3-5 minutes.”
Since the implementation of Real ID, the process of obtaining a driver’s license can take up to two hours, thus the need to schedule appointments to avoid a large number of people waiting in line for hours.
To obtain a Real ID, one must submit an “original” birth certificate issued by the state of birth or a passport. One must also provide two forms of proof of residence and a social security card.
“With the Real ID, we are processing documents, but that isn’t necessarily what’s killing the time. It’s the process of that system, putting everything in and going through all the motions we go through now, that we didn’t have to before Real ID,” White said. The problem is that the process is the same for both a driver’s license and a Real ID. Additionally, the state computer system crashes frequently, exacerbating the problem.
Vehicle registration and tag renewals are still being processed in the office in their usual timely fashion. For any questions, or to make an appointment for a driver’s license or Real ID, call 918-224-0264.
