Thursday should be a better day to get your new driver's license or renew your old one.
On Wednesday, Department of Driver Services officials had urged customers to wait a day to avoid long lines brought on by a statewide slowdown on issuing license and identification cards.
The problem stemmed from the state's inability to access the national drivers registry, where officials check to see if people trying to get Georgia licenses have outstanding tickets in other states, Department of Driver Services spokeswoman Susan Sports explained. "We can't issue licenses without that," she said.
Offices were back in business as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Sports, who added, "We anticipate business as normal" on Thursday.
V.J. Fuller of Marietta said she waited more than four hours to renew her license at the Canton Road office.
"People kept coming in and coming in and coming in ... it's chaotic," she said.
Greg Mize tweeted about the outage after he visited the office near Turner Field to renew his license Wednesday. "I was impressed with the communication from the staff on-site. The issue was out of their control, but they were friendly and forthcoming and gave constant updates," he later told the AJC.
Sports stressed that the Wednesday slowdown has nothing to do with new requirements for renewing driver's licenses that have increased wait times at Driver Services offices. Drivers renewing their licenses must now bring an original or certified birth certification or valid passport, proof of a Social Security number and two documents proving where they live.
The outage did not affect road test appointments or written exams or motor vehicle registration.
Driver's license offices are open Tuesday through Saturday. Services can also be accessed online.
About the Author
