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Question: I got one of those wrong licenses, which took more than six weeks to receive in the mail. Now I have to get a new license. Why is that necessary when TSA is saying they will accept the misprint? And how long will it take?
Answer: The exception provided by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and law enforcement agencies statewide is temporary, long enough for a vendor to replace 2,450 driver’s licenses and state identification cards on which it printed “Hawaii” in the wrong font, Shelly Kunishige, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation, said Tuesday. She did not know exactly when the exception would end, but said the DOT knows which people are affected and will track progress on replacements over the next few weeks. Your misprinted license won’t be accepted by security screeners for its eight-year duration, as “the exception is for now,” she said.
Correction processes might vary by county. Affected Oahu residents don’t have to call the DMV. They will automatically receive a corrected license or state ID, with mailing from the mainland expected to occur in two to three weeks, said Bill Powers, a spokesperson for Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services.
In announcing the problem Monday, the state DOT said in a news release that “credentials with the misprint can be used normally because they have the proper security features in place. The TSA and law enforcement statewide have been notified and provided samples of this printing error and have agreed to treat the misprinted credentials as a valid form of identification.” However, as Kunishige confirmed Tuesday, the exception is temporary.
Anyone who received a Hawaii driver’s license or state ID in the mail during February should check the plastic card, as most of the flawed credentials were printed in February, the DOT said. If the word “Hawaii” at the top isn’t in the usual cursive-style font, a replacement is needed, which the vendor will provide without charge. Here’s more information:
>> Honolulu County: Nearly 69% of the total, or 1,684 credentials, were mailed to Oahu residents. Powers said the Department of Customer Services will mail a letter to affected people, and the vendor will mail the replacement driver’s licenses and state identification cards, which will arrive in a plain envelope; don’t mistake them for junk mail. “We expect the new cards to be mailed out in the next two-to-three weeks,” he said Tuesday in an email. The mailer from the vendor also will include a prepaid envelope for the person to return their misprinted credential, which will be destroyed.
Affected neighbor island residents should call their respective county driver licensing office for instructions, the DOT said.
>> Hawaii County, 353 people affected: Call 808-961-2335.
>> Kauai County, 121 people affected: Call 808-241-4242.
>> Maui County, 292 people affected: Call 808-270-7363.
Q: Why did it take so long to notice the problem with the licenses? They print out a temporary at renewal.
A: The font wasn’t wrong on temporary, paper driver’s licenses or state IDs that are printed on the spot in Hawaii, the day the person renews a credential or obtains it for the first time, Kunishige said. The error occurred in the production of permanent, plastic credentials by the vendor, Thales, which “lost” Hawaii’s cursive-style font during an equipment upgrade, according to Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services. Thales is not based in Hawaii. The plastic cards are mailed six to eight weeks after the temporary credential is issued.
“We regret that this error slipped past our vendor’s quality processes during an equipment upgrade that caused the standard cursive font to get lost. Our vendor has corrected the error and taken steps to prevent it from happening again by making sure to triple check fonts during equipment upgrades,” the department says on its website.
With the font wrong, the credential could be mistaken for a fake ID.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
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