8,200 Michigan Enhanced Licenses Misprinted With Stock Photos, State Already Mailing Fixes

More than 8,200 Michigan residents opened envelopes from the Secretary of State this summer to find licenses or ID cards that weren't quite right: a stock photo and someone else's date of birth printed in the lower-right corner instead of their own information.

The Michigan Department of State says the mistake traces back to a vendor error at Idemia, the company contracted to produce the state's enhanced driver's licenses and enhanced state ID cards. The batch of misprinted cards was produced on Aug. 26.

The department said the incorrect data on the cards did not belong to another Michigan resident. The stock photo and mismatched birth date were placeholder information, not a real person's identity, according to the department.

Still, for the more than 8,200 people who received one of the flawed cards, the error meant walking around with a state-issued identification document that didn't display accurate information in that corner of the card.

The department says it has already mailed corrected, accurate cards to everyone who received a misprinted license or ID. Angela Benander, the department's chief communications officer, said residents don't need to do anything to get the fix.

"We have already sent new, corrected cards to everyone who received a misprinted license or ID," Benander said. "People who got a misprinted license don't have to take any action at this time because they will automatically get a new card in the mail."

Enhanced licenses and enhanced IDs are a specific category of Michigan credential. Unlike standard driver's licenses, they include proof of U.S. citizenship and are accepted for re-entry into the country by land or sea from Canada, Mexico and some Caribbean countries, the way a passport card is used at those crossings.

For anyone affected whose old license or ID had already expired before the replacement arrived, the department said residents can go online or visit a Secretary of State branch office to print a temporary license or ID to use while they wait. Residents whose old card had not yet expired can keep using it for travel in the meantime, since the department says the original document remains valid despite the printing error.

The Department of State has not said how the printing defect at Idemia went undetected before the Aug. 26 batch went out, nor whether the vendor has changed its printing process since. The department also has not specified how many branch locations or ZIP codes were most affected, saying only that the misprinted cards were mailed statewide.

Michigan residents who are unsure whether their enhanced license or ID was part of the affected batch and have not yet received a corrected card can contact the Secretary of State's office directly. The department says the replacement mailing is already complete for everyone it has identified as affected.