Make it easier to get Real ID in Pennsylvania
The process of getting Real ID should be made easier. We hope Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey and Rep. Lloyd Smucker are paying attention to this reporting and listening to their constituents’ concerns about Real ID.
A recent article noted that more than 33,000 Lancaster County residents have already obtained their Real ID. About 750,000 Pennsylvanians have gone through the Real ID process, and it’s estimated that another 550,000 will do so by October, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official said.
Awareness has clearly been raised about the Real ID deadline.
But the increase in applicants has been accompanied by a hike in headaches.
Like the one encountered by Robert Landis, 82, and Patricia Landis, 77, of Brethren Village. They’ve been married since the Eisenhower administration, and they wanted to obtain their Real IDs.
They took, Meko wrote, “everything they could think of ... to the Department of Motor Vehicles in East Lampeter Township — driver’s license, Social Security cards, Medicare card, birth certificates, voter registration, child abuse history clearances, four paid bills, baptism certificates, state police clearances and residence receipts. They took at least 10 separate documents each to prove their residency and existence.” Robert Landis got his Real ID. Patricia Landis did not. The hitch: She needed to show an official marriage certificate.
“For a Real ID, proof of all legal name changes is necessary — a certified marriage certificate, court order or divorce decree issued by the county’s family court are documents accepted to show those changes,” Meko wrote.
And so Patricia Landis, after an unplanned trip to the Lancaster
County Courthouse for a copy of her marriage certificate from six decades ago, finally did get her Real ID.
But they explained that the “hassle of going from their home to the licensing center, then to the courthouse and back to finally get her identification was exhausting.”
Unnecessarily exhausting, we say.
Patricia Landis noted that it might not have been so exhausting if they were younger.
But we think she’s not giving herself enough credit for being so persistent.
And, importantly, while younger people seeking a Real ID might indeed have more energy for all of the “hassle,” will they have the time?
A married or divorced woman with a job and/or children can’t afford to essentially spend a day running back and forth to government offices to wrangle all the documentation necessary to obtain a Real ID.
We wrote “woman” there because the focus the Real ID process places on documenting all name changes places a disproportionate burden on women, who have traditionally been the ones to change their names in our society following marriage and divorce. “The more times a name has changed, the more complicated the (Real ID) process can get because each name change must be shown through official documentation,” Meko noted.
We find that burden, mandated by the federal government, to be ridiculous. And, regrettably, there’s little that can be done about it now.
But there are some things that can still be done to streamline the Real ID process.
State Rep. Joe Webster, DMontgomery County, will introduce a bill in Harrisburg that “would set a uniform fee throughout the state for marriage license copies and would waive the fee for individuals getting copies to apply for a Real ID,” Meko wrote.
We think that’s a good idea. We’d like to see Webster’s bill on the fast track in the General Assembly. Make it law in time to help those who are up against the October deadline.
Beyond that, substantive relief regarding Real ID would likely have to come from the federal level, which is why Casey, Toomey and Smucker must remain attuned to what Pennsylvanians are saying.
PennDOT, responding to a request for Real ID suggestions from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has two ideas. One is to allow people who already have a valid passport to apply for their Real ID online. The other is to make Real ID exceptions for people over the age of 75, given that wrangling a lifetime’s worth of birth certificates, marriage certificates and other documents can be a major burden.
We like those ideas, though, as PennDOT Deputy Secretary Kurt Myers noted, this is the federal government we’re talking about. Change, if it even happens, won’t be quick.
So Myers’ best suggestion for those who need Real ID is to get started on the process as soon as possible. (Sooner, perhaps, if you are a woman who has ever changed her name.)
As a final note, we applaud state Sens. Ryan Aument and Scott Martin for hosting a pair of Real ID information sessions today in Lititz. That’s an excellent way to serve constituents. It’s so helpful, in fact, that both sessions, which required pre-registration, are already full.
Given that level of local interest, additional sessions in the near future would be a great help.