Bismarck, North Dakota – Your driver’s license will appear a little bit differently when you obtain it from the Department of Transportation in the future.
In Bismarck’s DOT, the old has to make way for the new. More security features are included in the new licenses, which is good news for most individuals but bad news for others.
“I think the biggest area we see around here is with minors that are getting counterfeit licenses to get into liquor establishments because we do get reports of that. So that’s probably the biggest concern. So with these new security features, it’s going to make it much more difficult for people to do that,” said Brad Schaffer, the Driver’s License Director at Bismarck’s DOT.
The new licenses, according to Schaffer, will cost the same as the existing ones and meet the same actual ID requirements. The cards contain a ghost picture that appears under a black light, a dynamic look-through element, and a new shape called a squircle, which combines a circle with a square.
However, drivers who are happy with their current license can relax. As usual, their license will remain active until it expires. For North Dakotans who like the old design to the new one, this is excellent news.
“I think the old one looks better. Yeah. It looks more exciting, I think. Yeah, the colors,” Kristine Campos, a North Dakotan driver, said.
“It looks to me like it could be a lot easier to read when you’re working. I work at a convenience store, so it’d be easier to, I think, do it. I’d have to look at a real one, but I want the old better, I like it,” Dan Brown, another North Dakotan driver, said.
This week, the new cards began to be distributed in Bismarck. According to Schaffer, the new design will be introduced gradually throughout the rest of North Dakota, starting with Grand Forks and Devils Lake.
According to Schaffer, North Dakota is the first state to use the squircle as a license symbol.
