Alabamians may soon be able to purchase digital driver’s licenses and nondriver IDs.
On Wednesday, the Alabama Senate State Government Committee passed House Bill 110, sponsored by Representative Ontario Tillman, D-District 56, which would require the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency to offer residents the option to purchase a digital driver’s license or nondriver identification card in addition to their physical ID.
Under the latest version of Tillman’s bill, the digital cards would be made available to Alabamians for a $15 fee, “contingent upon the availability of funds,” and would be accessible through an ALEA-approved “mobile electronic method.”
The digital versions would contain all of the same information as their physical counterparts.
If the legislation becomes law, Alabamians will be able to produce their digital license in lieu of a physical driver’s license during a traffic stop or upon the demand of a judge, peace officer, state trooper, or any other state or local governmental entity in the state. The bill clarifies that if an individual were to produce their digital ID to a law enforcement official, they would not be implicitly consenting to any further search of their mobile device.
The bill would also mandate that ALEA “apply reasonable standards of security to protect the integrity of the digital driver license or nondriver identification card and privacy of the licensee.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee added a friendly amendment simply including technical clarifications requested by ALEA. Both the amendment and the bill as a whole were quickly approved, sending HB110 to the Senate floor for consideration by the entire body.
