KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — The doors to all driver licensing services throughout the state of Idaho were closed for another day on Wednesday. The state-wide closure started on Monday and were tied to a license vendor hired by the Idaho Transportation Department.
The Idaho Transportation Department said that the vendor, an Indiana company, physically makes the licenses and ID cards and then mails them out.
ITD contracts with the company and sends them the information to go on cards, but ITD said that the company's system is malfunctioning.
It's not the only setback, earlier this month, licensing offices were closed for a couple of days as ITD upgraded its computer software.
ITD said the newest setback is unrelated to the software upgrade, but it's still a hard situation for many.
Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said a change needs to happen. Idaho is just one of two states in the country where the Sheriff's office is responsible for operating licensing offices.
Wolfinger said ITD should be responsible, not his people.
"We're frustrated. We don't think we should be doing this in the first place," said Wolfinger. "We have to provide the facilities, we have to provide the staff. And we're losing money on this thing."
To transfer licensing office operations from Sheriff's Offices to ITD, it would have to come from lawmakers.
Wolfinger also questioned if ITD fully tested its new software and properly vetted its vendor in the first place.
To that, an ITD spokesman said that they've been testing their systems since January.
For now, drivers with expired licenses have been granted an emergency extension until October 31.