WENTZVILLE, Mo. — More than 1.6 million Missourians have already signed up to get a REAL ID, but a local woman reached out to 5 On Your Side with concerns that women of a certain age are being unfairly denied.
With the May 3 deadline drawing closer by the day, 74-year-old Joyce Fletcher said she wants to get a REAL ID for one reason.
“I didn’t want to be excluded from government buildings and from flying everywhere,” Fletcher said.
So, she took her birth certificate, marriage license, driver’s license, social security card and even her taxes to the Wentzville License Office to get one. However, she was quickly denied.
“They didn’t accept my marriage license because it doesn’t have a stamp on it,” Fletcher said. “Neither (of the licenses) we got when we were married has a stamp on them.”
The problem is when she got married in 1969, the City of St. Louis didn’t use the required stamp.
“You can get a stamp on birth certificate, but I haven’t found anywhere yet that I can get a stamp on a marriage license,” Fletcher said.
RELATED: No, your driver’s license does not need to be a REAL ID to get you on a domestic flight yet
In search of answers, she reached out to the Missouri Department of Revenue, where she was told there was a quick fix if she wanted to pay up.
“They said I could go around the problem by getting a passport, which seemed absolutely ridiculous,” said Fletcher. “It cost me an extra $100. How is it easier to get something you internationally use versus a Missouri driver’s license?”
That’s a question 5 On Your Side reporter Holden Kurwicki asked directly to a Missouri Department of Revenue spokesperson, who said she would look into the issue.
“Getting a drivers license isn’t a problem for most people,” Fletcher said.
More than 24 hours later, the Department of Revenue spokesperson had yet to provide a solution.
“For us older women who changed their names before there was a seal on a marriage license, it is a problem,” Fletcher said.
That’s why she has this simple request for the Show Me State.
“There’s a little glitch here in your system, and you need to correct it to make it hassle-free for us older women," she said.
The deadline to get a REAL ID is May 3, but it isn’t required in Missouri.
For more information on what documents are required, click here.
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