As state offices closed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the state Department of Transportation’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services offices, the Oregon Legislature told police to allow people to drive with expired driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations, even after offices reopened, to allow people to reduce their risk of exposure. When the first grace period was soon to expire, the Legislature passed another extension, and then another.
David House of the Oregon DMV told OPB, “The last one, put in place by this year’s legislature, will end at the end of this year, December 31st, so if you have a driver’s license, permit, ID card, or your tags on your car are expired and you just haven’t got into DMV yet, you need to do that before the end of the year.”
Asked whether the Department was concerned about crowding, danger of infection, and delay of service as people came in to catch up on expired registration, House said he would not be able to say how serious a problem that was likely to be, since many of the people whose licenses have expired may not be planning to renew them, and since many transactions can be conducted online, a thing many people have become more comfortable with during the COVID-19 emergency.
By John M. Burt
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