Over Ten Million Reasons Why Alaskans Say ‘No’ To The DMV’s National ID Card
JUNEAU, 5 November 2007. The legal fight to keep our Alaska driver’s licenses from being turned into National ID cards continues.
Motions were filed in Alaska District Court today asking the judge to rule that the Alaska DMV disrespected the authority of the legislature when it changed its own governing regulations without legislative approval. The DMV has repeatedly failed to get REAL ID legislation passed through the legislature, but changed a lot of rules anyway: we’ve asked the Court to fix that. We’ve also asked the Court to rule that Alaska can’t take the extension to comply with REAL ID unless the legislature says so.
Things are slowly coming right. Governor Palin fired DMV chief (and Murkowski appointee) Duane Bannock; and her Administration hasn’t exactly championed this National ID card scheme.
Part of the reason might be the absurdly high cost, not only to our freedom and privacy, but our wallets. In a hitherto secret report made by ex-DMV chief Bannock to a survey by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, Bannock stated that implementing this National ID card scheme will cost Alaskans over ten million dollars (read 584 KB PDF) just for starters!
Any kind of Identity-based domestic security – "show me your proper papers" – implemented by this national ID scheme makes us have to carry our papers in order to move freely in our own state and our own country. This is wrong. Constantly having to prove to TSA that you are not "wanted" or on one of their bloated secret lists sounds like communist China – not freedom-loving Alaska.