In a move that will make IDs more trustworthy for Notaries who rely on them, the Obama administration is moving forward with plans to establish a uniform set of security standards for all government-issued IDs, making them harder to forge or alter.
The issue is of such grave concern that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that a national standard for issuing IDs is necessary because the current system is “too open to fraud.”
Driver’s licenses and other state-issued IDs are among the most common forms of identification Notaries encounter. The more secure and fraud-proof IDs are, the easier it will be for Notaries to verify that signers are who they say they are.
The key element of the Administration’s campaign to strengthen ID security is the new PASS ID Act, which recently was introduced in Congress and would replace the contentious REAL ID Act of 2005. Because many states chaffed at the cost of implementing the requirements of REAL ID, the new PASS ID proposal would keep many of the requirements but give states more flexibility in meeting them and shift much of the cost. While the administration’s plans remain in development, some of the new requirements could include:
- Information and security features integrated into each ID card
- More proof of an applicant’s identity and other personal information
- Systems to make sure a person does not hold multiple IDs from other states
- Security standards for issuing licenses and identification cards
