Bill to Require Alphanumeric Driver Licenses Clears Senate

A bill to require an alphanumeric sequence rather than computer-generated numbers for Oklahoma driver licenses or identification cards has won Senate approval. Sen. Clark Jolley is principal author of the measure.

“If you look at an Oklahoma driver’s license and a Social Security number, you can’t distinguish the two. Since numerous businesses now require your driver license number for financial transactions, I believe it is imperative that we are able to simply glance at the number and be able to distinguish it from a Social Security number,” explained Jolley, R-Edmond

“When an individual mistakenly enters an Oklahoma driver’s license number as someone’s Social Security number, it causes credit problems for the innocent person who has been assigned that Social Security number. It’s not as much intentional identity theft as inadvertent identity confusion which we are trying to resolve,” Jolley said.

Senate Bill 24 would simply require the Department of Public Safety to issue driver licenses or identification cards with a sequence that contains both numbers and letters to help eliminate confusion with social security numbers.

“This exact situation actually happened to a constituent of mine,” said Rep. Thad Balkman, R-Norman. “It was completely accidental, but it caused a lot of credit problems. I believe an alphanumeric sequence could eliminate that type of confusion.”

The measure now moves to the House where Rep. Balkman will serve as co-author.