Real ID records reveal conflict with feds

AUGUSTA – Documents released under a freedom of access request reflect frustration with the federal government and a high degree of tension as a deadline closed in for Maine to accept Homeland Security Department demands to tighten its driver’s license standards.

A 14-inch stack of documents details behind-the-scenes actions by Gov. John Baldacci’s office and other state officials in the form of e-mails, handwritten notes, proposed and finished press releases and copies of news stories about Real ID. Additional documents were also being collected.

The papers also include government documents outlining the Real ID license-security law, reviews of draft legislation to change Maine’s licensing standards, and talking points provided for top state officials to emphasize certain information to the public.

The documents were requested by news organizations including The Associated Press around the time of a March 31 deadline for states to show they were making progress toward compliance with Real ID or face prospects of not having their licenses and IDs accepted for federal identification purposes.

That would have meant state licenses would not be acceptable for boarding planes or getting into federal buildings. Baldacci had made it clear that he did not want Mainers inconvenienced, so Maine like other states sought an extension for compliance. It wouldn’t come easily.

Meetings were held, e-mails flew back and forth, and letters began ping-ponging between Baldacci and Homeland Security offices. Montana, then in a similar spot as Maine, wrote Baldacci asking for his state’s support in resisting the Real ID law.

Documents also include single-paragraph letters from some states, including Arkansas and South Carolina, requesting extensions. The fact that they were granted with comparatively little ado rankled some Maine officials.

E-mails from the public about Real ID poured into the governor’s office, which counted 15,727 of them by Feb. 22, the documents show.

A letter to request an extension was drafted. A legal counsel in Baldacci’s office, Karla Black, called one draft she reviewed “waaaaay too wordy.”

A division between Baldacci and Maine’s top motor vehicles official, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, became evident as Dunlap warned of the program’s potential costs in dollars and personal freedoms.

“This has been a very, very tough ride,” Dunlap said in a March 24 e-mail. “In our analysis, we’ve watched the license mission creep move against the Constitution to the point where our license to drive has become a license to travel.”

Baldacci’s request for an extension in a March 25 letter was rejected in a return letter from Homeland Security, undated and signed by Stewart Baker, the department’s assistant secretary for policy.

A follow-up letter was hastily drafted, spurring a flurry of internal written exchanges. Dunlap sarcastically expressed hope for approval in a March 29 e-mail to Baldacci staffers: “Hopefully Baker didn’t stub his toe getting up this morning and is in a good mood.”

In a single-paragraph letter to Baldacci signed by Baker, Homeland Security granted Maine an extension.

Baldacci’s letter of commitment triggered preparation of a bill to require Maine license holders to show they are legal residents of the United States and meet other federal demands.

After fast-track deliberation that included drafts and redrafts of bills that were among the requested documents, lawmakers enacted a measure that was signed by Baldacci April 17. It also requires that state credentials issued to noncitizens who live in the United States legally expire at the same time as the applicant’s authorized duration of stay.

Passage of the bill ended what one staff e-mail described as “a stressful time.”