In two days, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will begin enforcing a long-expected deadline for airline travelers to producer Read IDs before boarding their flights. But as of April 1, only 27 percent of Mainers had the required form of identification that will, as of May 7, be required for air travel and to enter federal buildings.
Days before the deadline, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was asking for yet another extension of the deadline for enforcing this requirement. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which falls under the area responsibility in her job description, had been charged with issuing Real IDs to Mainers. Its official website has noted for some time that an earlier, now-elapsed deadline had been extended to May 7 this year.
Congress initially passed legislation mandating Real IDs 20 years ago, so there is little that is new about this requirement. While the Department of Homeland Security has sponsored public awareness campaigns notifying citizens of this looming deadline for years, issuing the cards is the responsibility of states — many of whom have already integrated into their existing drivers licenses.
As of January 2024, over half (56 percent) of Americans were Real ID compliant, so Maine lags behind the nation in this respect by a factor of nearly two-to-one.
While Secretary Bellows has been busy warning Mainers that Voter ID, which an overwhelming percentage of them support, amounts to voter suppression, she has been less vocal when it comes to readying residents for a logistical requirement bound to cause headaches for thousands.
[RELATED: Sec. Bellows Changed Maine Elections, Yet the Question Remains: for Better, or for Worse?]
Bellows committed herself early in her tenure to “modernizing” Maine’s voter rolls by buying into a controversial data exchange, the more mundane task of complying with a federal requirement was clearly not a priority of her office. As she has learned from the woman she hopes to succeed, Governor Janet Mills (D), compliance with federal law, is after all, pretty much optional.
Those who have passports — an estimated 51 percent of Mainers — may use them in the place of Real IDs after May 7. Yet those who have neither may soon have wholly non-political reasons to ask their constitutional officer tasked with issuing IDs why she has been so slow to do her actual job.
Yes because 20 years notice wasn’t enough. Bellows we already know you’re incompetent, you can stop proving it.
No extension!!!Mainers had 20 years, get it done!!
I essentially make about $9,000-$13,000 every month on the web. It’s sufficient to serenely supplant my old employments pay, particularly considering I just work around 10-13 hours every week from home. I was stunned how simple it was after I attempted it duplicate underneath web…..
Begin here>>>>>>>>> Tinyurl.com/moredollar12
#Shenna5wallows
If you have a passport then you are fine. If you don’t, and you don’t have the new real ID drivers licence then you are just plain stupid. You have been told for twenty years that this was coming, but instead YOU decided to listen to these lib democrats telling you not to do it because of “TRUMP” or “BUSCH”. NOW, you cannot fly on a plane, you cannot enter a courthouse or other protected federal area. BUT, that’s OK! You did what your democrat overlords told you to do so be content and complain and whine about it!