By Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The Department of Homeland Security announced it will allow a portion of the REAL ID application process to be completed online, but Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office said it was too little, too late.

State officials, and their counterparts across the country, have been scrambling to process REAL ID-compliant driver licenses before Oct. 1. Starting Oct. 1, a REAL ID-compliant license or passport will be required for all air travel.

In Illinois, the Secretary of State’s Office announced in December that it would expand operating hours to accommodate the rush. The Department of Homeland Security announced it will allow states to handle much of the process via an online portal. This way, most of the vetting can be done beforehand. That would mean applicants would only need to present the required documents in person d at a Secretary of State’s Office facility.

“If you’re able to submit the documentation online, it’s going to make the process go a lot more quickly,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, senior vice president of public affairs and policy at the U.S. Travel Association.

Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Dave Drucker said the agency’s staff said such an online portal wouldn’t be ready for months.

“It would be a good six months before a computer system could be set up to accept those documents,” he said.

Illinois Secretary of State Jessie White’s office has a great working relationship with DHS, Drucker said, as it works to implement the new identification card process before Oct. 1.

White’s IT workers, still under scrutiny for errors in rolling out the state’s automatic voter registration program, could go on strike over work and pay issues.

If the pace of the application process continues, Emerson Barnes said the fall holiday travel season will likely be “chaos” because a number of states aren’t even issuing REAL IDs yet.

Department of Homeland Security officials said in a hearing Tuesday that they won’t push back the Oct. 1 date.

“While progress has been made, the real work is still ahead because approximately two-thirds of all licenses are presently not compliant with REAL ID,” Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. “Rest assured, our Department will continue to examine other viable options to improve upon this process and continues doing everything it can to inform Americans on the requirement to obtain a REAL ID before the full enforcement deadline later this year.”

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