License error wont hit wallet of Ohio drivers

State will replace botched ID for free, with no standing in line

Thursday, October 05, 2000

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

PLAIN DEALER BUREAU

Check your wallet. Your drivers license may be inaccurate.

About 500 Ohio licenses and identification cards, including 200 in Cleveland, bear a hologram of the state seal of Arkansas. A delivery error resulted in the mistake in about 20 deputy registrars offices statewide. The state Department of Public Safety is replacing the botched cards for free. Ohio licenses with the Arkansas hologram are still valid.

Generally, a hologram of the Ohio state seal appears in the plastic laminate along with the phrase "Dont Drink and Drive." But Viisage Technologies Inc., a small firm outside Boston that specializes in identification technology, confused orders headed to the two states. Most of the mix-ups occurred in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

Viisage, which has 60 employees, holds contracts with state motor-vehicle or transportation departments in seven other states besides Ohio and Arkansas, according to its latest annual report. Ohio has had its contract since 1995. Officials at the company could not be reached yesterday.

Another goof involving Arkansas, home of President Clinton, occurred this summer. An Arkansas man discovered a single misprinted golden dollar bearing the front of a George Washington quarter and the back of a Sacagawea dollar from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The $1 gold coin came in a roll purchased at an Arkansas bank.

Ohio Public Safety spokeswoman Julie Stebbins said her office had been assured that future mix-ups, such as the latest one, wont happen again.

She said people who hold the hybrid Ohio-Arkansas drivers licenses will get a break: They wont have to wait in line to have their licenses replaced. Stebbins said deputy registrars would allow them to move to the front of the line.

E-mail: jsmyth@plaind.com

http://www.cleveland.com/news/index.ssf?/news/pd/nn05driv.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 05, 2000