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* SoS press release…
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White is reminding the public that beginning the first week of September, customers will be required to make an appointment for behind-the-wheel road tests, REAL IDs, standard driver’s licenses and ID cards at three Chicago facilities. The facilities are Chicago North, 5401 N. Elston Ave. beginning Sept. 1; Chicago West, 5301 W. Lexington St. beginning Sept. 2; and Chicago South, 9901 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive beginning Sept. 3. Vehicle services, such as renewing a license plate sticker or applying for a vehicle title, do not require an appointment.
The week of Sept. 7, many other metro Driver Services facilities will also require appointments. These facilities and the dates they go live include Schaumburg and Bridgeview on Sept. 7; Lombard and Des Plaines on Sept. 8; Waukegan and Naperville on Sept. 9; and Aurora, Plano and Joliet on Sept. 10.
Lake Zurich, Melrose Park, Midlothian and Woodstock have been serving as appointment facilities since early this year and will continue requiring appointments.
All 16 appointment-based facilities will have the same standardized days and hours of operation: Tuesday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Customers and employees are required to wear masks. Customers are encouraged to bring their own masks.
Customers can visit www.cyberdriveillinois.com to schedule an appointment up to 10 days in advance during this phase of the program. New appointment slots will be available each day at www.cyberdriveillinois.com.
Secretary White emphasized that seniors, veterans, persons with disabilities and expectant mothers will be served as walk-ins at all 16 of the designated appointment facilities. They also have the option to make an appointment.
Beginning in September, customers can schedule an appointment online or by calling the appointment helpline at 844-817-4649. The Secretary of State is partnering with the Chicago Lighthouse to provide these call center services. The Chicago Lighthouse’s call centers offer career opportunities for people who are blind, visually impaired, disabled, veterans and economically disadvantaged.
White is launching a comprehensive media campaign this week, which includes television, radio, newspapers, digital display and social media ads that will run in English and Spanish in the Chicago metro area.
White noted that not all facilities will go to the appointment-based system. Many small, rural facilities will not require the appointment system because they do not encounter the heavy customer volume that large facilities encounter.
Larger central and downstate Illinois facilities will implement a customer scheduling system in the near future.
More details at the link.
* One of the new TV ads…
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Valencia Running for Illinois Secretary of State: More than a year before the election, one of the candidates for Illinois secretary of state is visiting the Quad Cities. Anna Valencia met with local Latino leaders Sunday, and Monday is talking with labor, faith, and Democratic party leaders. Valencia was first elected City Clerk for the city of Chicago in 2017, and says her main goal for state wide office is to modernize it so more services are available online. “So you don’t have to take a day off of work, drive thirty miles, wait in line, find child care, and transportation. You can do things on your mobile device. Whether that’s you taking your vision test, paying online, appointment dates, all your renewals should be on your mobile services so that’s priority one.”
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:22 am
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Deerfield has reports of 6 hours to get in the door sometimes. Glad they’re doing something but they need to spread the program to other locations.
Comment by Commissar Gritty Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:37 am
SOS candidate needs a new idea
Comment by Rabid Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:38 am
I think it will organize the chaos and I welcome it. I also have a fear that the amount of people that can be seen in a day will dramatically drop, which will result in making appointments as doffi ukt to get as getting a vaccine appoint earlier this year. Hope I am wrong.
Comment by Bothanspied Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:40 am
They seem to be doing this in a very thoughtful way. Offering a phone number for those not electronically inclined, some people will be accepted as walk-ins, good call center. Sounds very promising.
Comment by Leslie K Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:42 am
Interesting fix. Rather than attacking the demand side; the SoS is limiting the supply of services.
Better to expand walk-up hours on Saturday and not close on Monday
Comment by Donnie Elgin Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:44 am
Stepping into the 21st century.
Comment by Candy Dogood Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 11:49 am
I’m hoping they make it clearer on the website which ones are appointment-only and allow for appointments all the time (instead of the brief windows offered now). I gave up trying to find which ones require appointments on their website and had to track down news articles.
The experience was positive, but there were over a dozen people there being sent to a separate area to try to book an appointment on their phones because they didn’t know it was appointment-only. They should consider ordering large signage for those locations so they won’t need an employee with a bullhorn turning people away.
Comment by NIU Grad Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 12:00 pm
I just realized they blurred out Jesse White’s name in the ad so that this can be used after the next election…looks like they’re planning for the long-haul.
On this note, I hope they built a very large space in their budget for replacing his name on the dozens of signs and posters at each facility (including the early 2000’s public safety posters)…that’s going to take a while
Comment by NIU Grad Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 12:03 pm
I think Alexi will claim that this was his idea.
Comment by SAP Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 1:52 pm
The WVIK article excerpt is wrong - Valencia wasn’t “first elected” Clerk in 2017. She was appointed in 2016, sworn-in in 2017, and won election in 2019 after running unopposed. Weird way to change facts on their part.
Comment by City Worker Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 2:40 pm
It’s amazing how the pandemic had forced us all to re-evaluate how we do things. An appointment to visit the SOS is a huge improvement over having the block out your entire day because of the unknown.
Comment by Just Me 2 Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 2:44 pm
SOS State Fair walk up tent was awesome. Too bad they couldn’t do this more often. Worth $5 fair entry fee.
Comment by BTO2 Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 3:07 pm
So it’s taken SOS 16 months to figure this out??
Comment by Joe Schmoe Wednesday, Aug 25, 21 @ 10:00 pm
While they’re at it, could SOS finally rename their web addresses to something more official sounding? Cyberdrive sounds like something so Y2K-ish.
Comment by Non-AFSCME Unionized State Employee Thursday, Aug 26, 21 @ 5:18 am