LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A process, which started with so much hope in late June, has been banished not even two months later. Issuance of Voluntary Travel Identification Cards, (VTIDs) will not be rolled out across Kentucky as scheduled. Only Franklin and Woodford counties will continue to issue those driver’s licenses. Those were the two counties selected to be the pilot locations in June.
In a letter dated September 6, 2019, Transportation Cabinet Secretary, Greg Thomas told Circuit Court Clerks that the cabinet will be “halting installation and implementation of VTID issuance technology and equipment in any additional Circuit Court Clerk’s office.”
The measure is being taken due to workload on staffers inside the Woodford and Franklin Clerk’s offices. Or as one Clerk told LEX 18, “the processing time is the issue.” Thomas was made aware of this problem and eluded to such in his letter, writing, “it has become clear that there are significant and unforeseen workload and staffing issues.”
The Department of Homeland Security is mandating this form of identification - which can also serve as a driver’s license - for domestic airline travel beginning on October 1st of 2020. Without it, you’d need a passport for airline travel anywhere in the U.S. Thomas’s letter indicated that the state is working towards a solution, that’ll allow for everyone to gain access to these cards, while lightening the workload at the Circuit Courts. “KYTC,” Thomas wrote “is currently making effort to secure funding that will allow us to establish regional facilities to assume all responsibility for issuing the VTIDs.”
They have 54 weeks to meet the deadline.
