Drivers License not an internal passport in Maine

  You may want to get a Maine Drivers license. They refuse to be a part of the current police state that uses your "drivers license" as an "internal passport"

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Maine votes to refuse to alter state licenses
Officials: Program is too costly, invites fraud

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUGUSTA, Maine

The Maine Legislature voted to refuse a congressional order to change its driver's licenses so that they can serve as national identification cards.

Supporters of Thursday's nonbinding resolution say that the federal program would invite identity theft and cost Maine taxpayers $185 million over the first five years.

The resolution, which passed 34-0 in the Senate and 137-4 in the House, says that the Legislature "refuses to implement the Real ID Act of 2005" and asks Congress to repeal it. The act is set to take effect next year.

Copies of the resolution were to be sent to President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other federal and state officials.

The Real ID Act passed after it was found that Sept. 11 terrorists had obtained legitimate driver's licenses. The law will link state records to a central database and unify state licensing rules, making it harder to obtain a card fraudulently. Now, Chertoff said, people cross borders with hundreds of kinds of IDs.

Licenses that fail to meet Real ID standards will not be able to be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building.

Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union derided Real IDs as "a one-stop shop for identity thieves" because they would include coded addresses that could be read by someone with a scanner.

Bellows said that Maine was the first state to oppose the law and that other states are considering similar resolutions.

Last March, New Hampshire's House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would have rejected a $3 million grant for a Real ID pilot program. Democratic Gov. John Lynch supported the bill, but the Senate killed it.

In August, the National Conference of State Legislatures demanded that Congress either find a way to pay for the Real ID Act or repeal it. Officials in several states have complained that the law will cost them tens of millions of dollars to implement.

In Maine, the House majority leader, Rep. Hannah Pingree, a Democrat, said that Thursday's resolution is not binding. But she said that legislation yet to be voted on directs the secretary of state, who administers licensing laws, not to comply.

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Maine Legislature refuses to obey national-ID mandate

The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.27.2007
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine

Legislature declared that it would refuse a congressional order to change its drivers' licenses so they can be used as national identification cards.

Supporters of Thursday's nonbinding resolution — called the first of its kind in the nation — say the federal program would invite identity theft and cost Maine taxpayers $185 million over the first five years.

The resolution, which passed 34-0 in the Senate and 137-4 in the House, says the Legislature "refuses to implement the Real ID Act of 2005" and asks Congress to repeal it. The act takes effect next year.

Copies of the resolution were to be sent to President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other federal and state officials.

The Real ID Act passed after it was found that Sept. 11 terrorists had obtained legitimate driver's licenses. The law will link state records to a central database and seeks to unify the patchwork of state licensing rules, making it harder to obtain a card fraudulently. Now, Chertoff says, people cross borders with hundreds of kinds of IDs.

State licenses that fail to meet Real ID's standards will not be accepted to board an airplane or enter a federal building.

Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union derided Real IDs as "a one-stop shop for identity thieves" because they would include coded addresses that could be read by scanner.

Bellows said Maine was the first state to oppose the law and that other states are considering similar resolutions.

In August, the National Conference of State Legislatures demanded that Congress either find a way to pay for the Real ID Act or repeal it because of its cost to states.

Maine's House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat, acknowledged that the resolution is not binding.

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Real ID gets shot down by Maine legislature
Posted Jan 26th 2007 8:50PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Wireless

Although it has been a tick since we've heard anything substantial on the proposed Real ID card set to take the place of individual state drivers' licenses, it seems like Maine legislature has had their wheels turning (and fists curled) for a good bit. While a majority of lawmakers have simply given a whimsical thumbs-up to the potentially voyeuristic plan, the folks in Maine seem to think the invasion of privacy (not to mention the $185 million in implementation cost for the state) is downright lame. Shenna Bellows of the Maine Civil Liberties Union derided the presumably RFID-based Real IDs as "a one-stop shop for identity thieves," and it was noted that several other states (like New Hampshire, Georgia, and Montana) just might bust out their true feelings on the matter now that Maine has broken the collective silence. Of course, Maine hasn't completely gone loopy and opted out of the process just yet, as the current protest is simply filed as a "resolution," but backers seem fairly serious in their attempts to "protect the people of Maine from just this sort of dangerous federal mandate." So, what about that iris database you guys are building, hmm?