by Ty Tagami | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Drivers in Georgia would be able to leave home without their wallet, so long as they bring their smartphone, if legislation that seeks to require police to accept a digital version of drivers’ licenses becomes law.
House Bill 296 passed the Georgia House of Representatives by a wide bipartisan majority last week, and on Monday a Senate committee hit the accelerator on the bill.
“I think it’s a great and smart use of technology,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, which voted unanimously to move HB 296 to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a possible vote by the full Senate.
A similar measure passed the House last year with broad support but stalled in the Senate. A Senate committee passed the measure, but it never got a vote on the Senate floor.
Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, the chief sponsor of HB 296, said about 450,000 Georgians are already using an official Georgia drivers’ license in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. So far though, the identification is only accepted by the Transportation Security Administration at airports.
HB 296 wouldn’t expand the use beyond police officers in traffic stops. It doesn’t mention using digital identification at bars to confirm age, for instance, and it specifically excludes their use in polling places.
That last element about polling places was absent from last year’s version, House Bill 1001. The polling place exclusion in this year’s version may make lawmakers more comfortable with the idea, given the concerns about election security in recent years.
The only holdup at this point is ensuring that all police officers have a smartphone equipped to validate a digital license. The validation works by tapping phones, like in the supermarket checkout line. Officers don’t want to have to carry a driver’s phone back to their cruiser to verify identity, Gaines said, so a device they can carry to the driver’s side door is key.
The technology already exists.
“Any officer with an iPhone can now just scan a driver’s license and verify that information,” Gaines said.
The bill includes a requirement that law enforcement agencies equip their officers with the necessary devices by July 2027, though Gaines said that date could be pushed back if agencies encounter problems.
The legislation also says officers could not search a driver’s phone for other information simply because the driver handed it over for license verification. And it clarifies that drivers could still use a traditional analog license during a stop.
Gaines advised drivers to carry both even if this measure becomes law.
