CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — When Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias came into office in 2023, he vowed to use technology to improve services for drivers and others. He's often asked, though, if all the new technology will include so-called digital driver’s licenses and digital license plates, which could display whether they are valid or on a stolen car.
At a Union League Club luncheon last week, he answered that he expects to see digital driver’s licenses within a few years.
“That’s our goal,” he said. “Other states are already doing it. The state of Louisiana, for example, people have their driver's license on their phones. We will get there. It’s the wave of the future. It’s the way people have their boarding passes, their other pieces of identification. If you live in Arizona, your driver’s license is on your Apple Wallet. It makes things easier.”
Digital license plates, he said, are a different story. Officials have looked into them and have found there are a number of issues that still need to be worked out. It may be quite some time before we see them here.
On another matter, Giannoulias said efforts by mostly conservative groups to get libraries to remove books they object to run counter to the freedoms this nation prides itself in upholding.
He was instrumental in getting a law passed that bars state grants for any library that bans books based on content or subject matter. Some libraries and librarians have been threatened over such books, and at the Union Club luncheon, Giannoulias said he’s received threats, too.
“Part of being an elected official, unfortunately, these days, and this is a deeper issue, is … you get threats,” he said. “I used to also get threats when I was state treasurer. Now, and this is, again, a deeper issue, politics has become so toxic and so horrible. When you have three young kids, it becomes a lot more real.”
Bomb threats have forced some libraries to temporarily close. Authorities want to shut down such behavior.
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