Official warns of huge impact:

Here's a story from the CHAMPAIGN-URBANA News_Gazette-online. Jim Burns, inspector general for the Illinois secretary of state, heads up a committee within that office to look at issues related to the Real ID. He's looking; he assumes the feds will require RealID to happen; but he expects a huge impact on everyone. Some quotes:

The federal law requires the state to verify the documents and then scan and store them electronically ... That will mean new computer systems and may require additional employees.

Illinois has 8.5 million registered driver's licenses. They would all be required to get new identification, along with people who want to travel on airplanes who don't have a driver's license now. Burns said he believes there will be a staggered or phased implementation, rather than requiring millions of drivers to get new licenses at once.

Illinois will have to be able to link to other states and agencies to share and verify information, according to Burns. That would be just one aspect of costs for the new system

"Our attitude is it's going to be done," Burns said. The feds have said it's going to be done. It's being done from a security standpoint, so we aren't going to sit by and wait. Let's buckle down and get going."