When someone can list as their residence the address of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office where they are applying for a license and be issued a driver’s license the system clearly is broken. This has happened nine times in recent years. More than 800 people have claimed UPS stores as their residence and been issued Maine driver’s licenses.

It should not have taken threats from the federal government for Maine to fix this problem. By waiting for such threats, Maine’s poor licensing practices have now been wrapping up in the controversial Real ID program. Ensuring Maine does not issue licenses to people who don’t live in Maine or who lie about where they live has nothing to do with Real ID, which focuses on national standards for driver’s licenses. Maine should tighten its licensing procedures because they are inadequate, not because the federal government told the state it must.

A task force last year recommended that Maine require proof of residency before issuing someone a driver’s license. Maine currently only requires that someone show intent to live in the state, not that they actually reside here. By this standard, people using the Scotia Prince ferry, post office boxes, UPS stores and even Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices as their address have been issued Maine driver’s licenses. Subsequently tracking these people down is impossible since the state has no idea where they actually live.

A bill before the Transportation Committee, LD 2304, addresses this problem by requiring license applicants to provide official documentation – payroll stubs, W-2 forms and tax returns, for example – to prove their residence. Those without such documents could provide two sworn affidavits as to where they live.

The residency problem is related to, but can be solved separately from, whether an applicant is in the United States legally, which Gov. John Baldacci has promised to address in exchange for the Department of Homeland Security granting Maine an extension for complying with the Real ID Act.

The department had threatened to not allow Maine licenses to serve as identification for federal purposes, such as boarding air planes and entering government buildings, if Maine did not seek an extension. Other states had requested extensions while noting that their legislatures had forbid compliance with the Real ID law. Maine took a different track and asked for a waiver based on steps the state had taken to improve its driver’s licenses. DHS said this was insufficient, mostly because the state did not require applicants to prove they were in the country legally. The department also criticized Maine’s lack of residency requirement.

Between 1976 and 1997, 46 Maine licenses were issued to people without Social Security numbers, which likely indicates they are in the country illegally, according to the Department of Public Safety. Last year, more than 1,300 were.

A residency requirement largely addresses concerns about illegal immigrants coming to Maine to get licenses because they won’t have the documents to prove residency here.

Passing LD 2304 will close this gaping loophole.