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From: wcs@ho95e.UUCP (Bill.Stewart.4K435.x0705)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: SSN as Driver's Licence Number
Message-ID: <196@ho95e.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 18:40:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: ho95e.196
Posted: Wed Sep 25 18:40:53 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 07:47:26 EDT
References: <501@decwrl.UUCP> <411@scgvaxd.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 65

>      Hawaii uses your SSN as your Driver's License Number.  I don't remember
> an escape clause to use another number.  
> 				-- Chris Yoder
> UUCP --- {allegra|ihnp4}!scgvaxd!engvax!chris
> 
> {  The opinions here are representative of Huge Aircrash, not me and 
>    *especially* not of my poor little keyboard.    8-)= > }

Many years ago, my father-in-law moved to Hawaii and applied for his driver's
license.  The law at the time (don't know if it's still the same) said the
state wanted your SSN or thumbprint as ID for the license (Federal law at
the time did not permit them to demand your SSN.)  Of course the SSN is
more convenient for them to use, so they always use it, even though the law
will theoretically accept either one, and the clerks at the DMV insisted on
the SSN.  (Clerks at DMV's are not interested in the law, they are interested
in following the procedures they always follow.)  So he inisted that state
law permitted either one (which it did), and that Federal law said what they
were doing was illegal, and talked his way up through N levels of
management until they eventually complied.

The Federal law is now less restrictive, so New Jersey  now demands your SSN
to give you a drivers license or register a car.  The (state) law, which is
available in printed form at the DMV, says they can use it for three
explicitly stated purposes, and forbids them to use it for anyhthing not
specified in the law, or tho give it to anyone else except under the
conditions listed therein.  Well, the law does not say they can print
it on your license or use it as your license number, but their software
prints it on the license anyway (a holdover from the days when giving them
the number was "optional", which allowed them to do anything they wanted to
with it.)  I pointed this out to the clerks, and said I didn't want my
number printed on my license and that it was illegal for them to do so, and
they weren't impressed.
	They pointed to the pay phone and gave me the phone
number of Mr. Iannoti at the Bureau of Agencies in Trenton, and told me they
might do something if HE told them to.  Well, he was helpful and friendly
and totally uncooperative, but he did add one of their lawyers (Mark
DeLella) on to the call.  DeLella said he was aware of them problem, and
that the software was being updated in a few weeks (anyone know if it's
really been done yet?).  (My license was expiring so I couldn't wait.)
We compromised - the computer would print the SSN, but the clerks blacked it
oout before making the license, so I now have a nice black stripe labelled
"Social Security Number" on my license.

My wife went in a week later to get hers renewed, and had to go through the
same hassle.  Mrs. Malloy, the clerk, did not care that she had done this
for someone else a week ago; she would only do it under direct orders since
it was against all the procedures they work under to change or deface
anything the computer has printed.  Mr. Iannotti, the bureaucrat, 
did not care that the lawyer had told him the previous week that their
bureaucracy HAD to do something about the number being printed on the license.
However, after much hassle, he would make an exception in this case,
to get her off his back, but it was a one-shot thing and didn't apply
to anyone else.  (So, everyone, please tell him I gave you his name!)

So, if you're getting a New Jersey Driver's license, you can get it without
the SSN printed on it if either you have lots of patience (and a telephone
credit card) or if they've updated their software.  Arrggh!.  Bureaucrats
only comply with the law if you badger their bosses enough.

----
The story you have heard is true.  The names have been misspelled to
incriminate the guilty.
----
-- 
## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs