California Thinks Pennsylvania is Out to Get Me

Wednesday, August 03, 2005, at 01:09PM

By Eric Richardson

I went to the DMV today to get a California driver's license. I've been out here for four years now, but being a student you don't have to necessarily change your license/insurance/etc, so it's been one of those things I've put off. Now, though, since I don't have a car to worry about I figured I might as well go ahead and make the switch.

I made an appointment at the Lincoln Park branch, and that all worked out just fine. Of course I forgot to bring cash and had to take a 45 minute stroll to find an ATM, but that's my fault, not theirs. The written test was easy enough, and I sort of skipped the vision part (which I think might mean I get a corrective lenses restriction, but that's really not something I care about).

Here's where things get weird, though... They can't issue the actual license until I take care of something that showed up in the computer as a ticket in the state of Pennsylvania.

To my knowledge I have never had a ticket in PA, nor have I been pulled over there. In fact I just called PennDOT, and they don't have me in their computers.

It turns out that states use what's called the Problem Driver Pointer System to search for records connected to an individual in other states. Ostensibly this is to make sure a person only gets a license in a single state. That system searches the National Driver Register, which is a federally run database of driver information.

The CA DMV help line just gave me the number to CA's PDPS Department in Sacramento, so tomorrow I'll be calling them to try and get the query rerun to make sure it wasn't operator error or some sort of funny glitch like that. I could swear I caught a glimpse of a document giving me the wrong year of birth, even though it's right in the main license application. Perhaps there's an Eric Richardson exactly two years younger than me in Pennsylvania.

In any case, this is all a hassle that either (a) serves as a warning that the states shouldn't be allowed to share personal info on drivers or (b) shows that the feds should run all licensing, depending on your particular point of view.