Rep. Saucier’s driver’s license renewal bill now in effect

AUGUSTA, Maine — It is now easier for U.S. citizens born outside the country to renew their driver’s licenses, thanks to a law sponsored by Rep. Robert Saucier (D-Presque Isle).    “We are talking about people who have lived in Maine all their lives — have raised children and grandchildren here — and who have had driver’s licenses for decades but are not able to renew them easily,” Saucier said.
The law, which went into effect Oct. 9, addresses a problem faced by many of Saucier’s constituents in border communities by making document requirements less cumbersome.
The affected constituents are U.S. citizens by virtue of their American parents, but were born in Canada because their local hospitals at the time were on that side of the border. Some are unable to prove legal residence in the United States because they cannot supply their parents’ birth certificates and do not have other documentation to prove their citizenship status.
A driver’s license renewal in Maine requires documentation of legal presence in the United States such as a birth certificate, passport, certificate of naturalization or permanent resident card, also known as a “green card.” Previously, without such documentation, a driver could only get a temporary 60-day license. Some drivers repeatedly get temporary renewals because of the difficulty of the document requirements.
The new law allows the Secretary of State to exempt a driver from the requirement if the person has continuously held either a non-driver identification card or a valid driver’s license since Dec. 31, 1989 or was born before Dec. 1, 1964.
“The previous law was a burden on the Bureau of Motor Vehicle offices,” said Saucier. “It served no purpose other than punishing life-long Mainers.”
Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap testified in support of the legislation.
In his testimony, Dunlap said that while the documentation requirement might seem simple, it is “nowhere near as straightforward as it would intuitively appear.”
He noted that there are over 10,000 formats of birth certificates in the United States, with no uniform issuance and significant changes to repository sites over the years.
“Ironically, it is actually a simpler task for a non-citizen immigrant to provide suitable documentation than it would be for a St. John Valley farmer,” said Dunlap.