Many people use their smart phones to store tickets for concerts and sporting events. Some now store their boarding passes electronically on their phones.
In Illinois, Residents could soon start to electronically store their driver licenses with the push being back by Illinois Secretary of State.
Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner (D- Chicago) joined Total Information A.M. to discuss push to allow electronic drivers licenses on phones that is gaining traction in Illinois.
"As we look at technology and how it advanced, with people now having credit cards and plane ticket on their devices, this will just make it easier for generational folks who want to use that to identify," said Buckner. "It will be a companion mobile document that will let folks use their phones when they need it."
Buckner says that Illinois residents will not be required to have electronic versions of their drivers, it will simply just be an additional option for Illinois residents.
"It will not replace your physical drivers license, it will be a companion document so you will be able to have one or both if you need it," said Buckner. "There are folks that don't like technology, there are folks that are concerned with their phone(security) and so we want to make sure we are smart about that."
Buckner says that the bill, which will get assigned to a committee next week when legislators return to Springfield, says he also wants to make sure his bill doesn't cost those who work at the Illinois Secretary of State office their jobs.
"There are a lot of folks in the secretary of state's office that do a lot of hard work to get the physical copies of the licenses out to people and I want to make sure their jobs are safe and protected as well," said Buckner.
Buckner says that unfortunately, the electronic driver licenses would likely only be recognized in the state of Illinois for now, even though 15 states, including Missouri do have electronic driver licenses.
"We can only legislate in the boundaries of the state, but as more states bring this on, there will be some reciprocity and some ease of being able to look at these licenses and ids from other states but right now, this would apply only to the state of Illinois," said Buckner.
