SD’s driver’s license crisis
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Minnesota has a lot of problems, but at least our citizens can get a driver's license, right, South Dakota?
It's a comparison of crises between the two states today. In Minnesota, political leaders are trying to come up with a framework for a special session to deal with disaster relief.
The neighbors to the west, however, have bigger fish to fry: There are lines for driver's licenses.
Two years ago, the state started requiring everyone getting their licenses renewed to show either a birth certificate, passport or immigration documents, a Social Security card and two documents displaying a current address, the Argus Leader
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How long can it take? Hours.
"This is our third time here," Dianne May of Sioux Falls said Tuesday. "The first time we came at 11 o'clock and waited for three hours. We came back thinking if we came at 8 o'clock that would give us an hour to spare."
She laughed briefly. "We're back for the third time."
Josh Winter of Sioux Falls was making his second appearance in the line Tuesday.
"I came yesterday and saw I could not afford to wait. So I came back today and factored into my schedule another couple of hours," he said. "Thank God my work is flexible enough for me to take a few hours."
It didn't help that the state closed 15 offices.
But people are plenty upset, the newspaper editorial yesterday called for action and today the governor ordered the driver's license stations to stay open until 7 pm and hire whatever's needed to get rid of the lines.
Minnehaha County is threatening to evict the driver's license station in its government building because of the noise from people waiting in line, many of whom had to bring their young kids with them.
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