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AR15.COM
1/20/2026 1:33:20 PM EDT
The RealID document part went smoothly.  I had done the application online and had in my hands a valid passport plus a utility bill and a property tax bill.

What messed me up was that I had to do the visual acuity test.  My left eye corrects to about 20/20, but I have a lazy right eye and can't read even the largest text with it.  It's been that way all my life, and in 1974 when I got my first Driver License I had my ophthalmologist write letter (on paper, of course) to the DMV attesting that I was good to go in spite of the eye problem.

Of course I have had my license renewed several times in the last 50 years, and the eye thing has never been a problem until this morning.  The man who examined my documents and gave me the eye test couldn't find a record of that letter.  He spoke with his manager, hemmed and hawed a bunch, printed some crap out on paper then threw it away, and finally had me write an explanation by hand on a paper form, then sign it.

I thought he was being a dick at first, but he mellowed out and we had a nice chat about IT stuff.  He admitted that letters like mine are being dropped from their records the first time a licensee does the renewal online.  Their latest major system overhaul was done in the mid-1990s, and the front end to support online stuff was kind of tacked on to that.

Now the really scary part - He told me that the DMV has contracted with Salesforce to do a complete system overhaul.

Descending Organ Sting Version 1

Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by people who stumble through life dependent upon the vigilance and/or kindness of others. - Zardoz
1/20/2026 2:59:45 PM EDT
[#1]
Yeah, and it seems they also mishandled, "glitched" over 300,000 legal resident non-citizens getting the license/Real ID expiration dates out of synch with immigration renewal dates, too..
1/21/2026 3:58:52 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote History
Originally Posted By Featureless:
Yeah, and it seems they also mishandled, "glitched" over 300,000 legal resident non-citizens getting the license/Real ID expiration dates out of synch with immigration renewal dates, too..
View Quote
Mistakes like that are costly, and government employees don't feel the pain of those costs.

There is a pattern of inept IT management at the California DMV.  There is a long history to it.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-27-mn-50941-story.html

Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by people who stumble through life dependent upon the vigilance and/or kindness of others. - Zardoz

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