California has been using a "safe driver" renewal system for at least 20 years. Their method involved issuing a separate card that was supposed to be carried with (usually stapled to) the drivers license. I never liked that idea because the pictures got so dated and the licenses themselves got tattered and difficult to read, but I know it saves time and costs.
Originally Posted by
Global_Hi_Flyer
Under the DHS RealID rules, you can't have a DL and a RealID compliant ID simultaneously:
One person, one ID, according to Commandant Chertoff.
I suppose it's technically possible that a state could issue a non-RealID ID in addition to the RealID ID, but I really can't see that happening for cost and other procedural reasons.
"Papers Please!"
The idea behind that, as I understand it, was to prevent someone from having a drivers license, RealID-compliant or not, in two states simultaneously. Most, if not all states require that you surrender any license issued by another state before they'll give you one. Sometimes they just punch a hole in the old license and give it back, and sometimes they take it and (are supposed to) destroy it. Of course, people who get their license suspended or revoked in one state regularly go to another and don't tell them about their other license--they just say they've never had a license and get a new one. It's not that hard to do, and part of the RealID system would be to make the states' drivers license files consistent, so it would be easier to check for duplicates.
Originally Posted by
roundtheworld
But this would mean no DL for US citizens with passports!!
Because they have no biometric components, U.S. passports do not meet the RealID requirements. Thus, you could easily have both a passport and a RealID license.