Forms of Valid ID

Why is a driver’s license which is no longer valid for driving not valid for identification? If the picture still looks like you, why isn’t it valid to identify you?

(I was reading a story about being carded for alcohol but being refused because the driver’s license was expired and I started wondering)

Because some people who have to replace their drivers licenses to get a new one valid for driving sell the old one to someone who looks like them, but is underage. I lived in a college town for many years, and this was a big problem.

Some people even just sold valid licenses for the right amount of money. It was enough of a problem that the county raised the cost of replacing a lost license from basically administrative costs ($8) to something much higher ($40) to discourage people from selling their licenses.

And some people really don’t look like their picture 5 years later. Easier for a bar just to have a rule “must have a valid license” than to leave how much a person look like a 10-year-old picture to the discretion of the doorman, who gets fewer arguments if he can cite a general rule, rather than appear to be singling someone out.

I guess I’m just too honest to think of all those sneaky ways of using someone else’s license. :grinning: