350,000 NC drivers impacted by DMV issue could receive new licenses this month

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Thousands of North Carolinians waiting to receive their driver’s licenses could get their new cards by the end of the month.

The backlog impacted about 350,000 drivers across the state, and in a contentious hearing, NC lawmakers had some direct questions for DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin about how a seemingly small issue impacted so many people.uring the hearing, members of the state’s Oversight and Reform Committee highlighted issues the DMV is facing related to the major delays, which Goodwin said related to a glitch in February.

Lawmakers said the “glitch” involved around 2,100 drivers across three days in February, and the backlog it caused “boggles [their] mind.”

“It allowed folks [to renew] who should have been prevented from renewing because they couldn’t have a photo more than 16 years old,” Goodwin said.

The NC DMV alerted IDEMIA, the company manufacturing the licenses, of the issue after 2,100 were improperly renewed. DMV officials wanted those licenses found before they were shipped out.

Following the DMV’s request, IDEMIA said the DMV did not want to use a plan that would delete all the IDs made during the affected period before remaking them. That meant identifying the more than 2,100 cards out of 10,000 the company produces daily.

“We ultimately ended up with 10 days worth of credentials that had to be printed,” IDEMIA’s Lisa Shoemaker said. “It took several days to understand how many credentials the DMV was looking for.”