New bill seeks to allow Idaho to create optional electronic driver’s licenses
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The Transportation Security Administration already accepts digital driver’s licenses issued by 14 states, including Utah.
This article was originally published by Idaho Capital Sun.
A divided Idaho House Transportation and Defense Committee introduced a new bill Tuesday afternoon that would allow the state to develop optional mobile, electronic driver’s licenses for Idahoans who want one.
Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen, R-Idaho Falls, pushed the new bill saying digital driver’s licenses are secure, convenient and reduce paperwork for law enforcement officers – who would only need a scanner or mobile app to access information on a digital driver’s license instead of taking time to manually write out all of that information.
“In many ways, an electronic driver’s license is actually more secure than a paper copy that is sitting around,” Mickelsen said.
Mickelsen said about three-fourths of the states either offer an electronic driver’s license or are developing one.
The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, defines digital IDs and mobile driver’s licenses as a type of digital ID issued by a state that includes a digital representation of the same information contained on a physical driver’s license or state identification card.
TSA accepts digital driver’s licenses issued by 14 states at TSA airport checkpoints, including digital driver’s licenses from Idaho’s neighboring state of Utah.
Law enforcement officers, TSA officials, government officials, bartenders, medical providers and anyone else checking digital IDs would use an app, QR code reader or scanner to access and verify the information stored on digital driver’s licenses, Mickelsen said.
If the bill becomes law, the new digital driver’s licenses would be optional, not required, and people with a mobile driver’s license would still be required to have a physical driver’s license.
However, several legislators serving on the House Transportation and Defense Committee wondered about the security of digital driver’s licenses and questioned whether digital IDs are even necessary.
“We see data breaches every day of massive corporations that have billions of dollars worth of technology and the most advanced systems in the world that are being hacked, and hundreds of millions of people, their data is being mined,” said Rep. Kyle Harris, R-Lewiston.
Following several rounds of questions, the committee voted 10-6 to introduce the bill Tuesday.
Introducing the new bill clears the way for it to return to the committee for a full public hearing at a later date.
Mickelsen’s bill will be posted publicly on the Idaho Legislature’s website and assigned a bill number after it is read across the desk on the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives – likely late Wednesday morning.