Editorial: Is the Real ID deadline real this time?

You have to have a Real ID.

You need to get one by May 3, 2023.

No kidding this time.

On Monday, PennDOT laid down the law about the federally required super-identification.

“Although a year seems like a long time to get ready, the deadline will be upon us before you know it,” said Melissa Batula, PennDOT’s acting executive deputy secretary. “We encourage our customers who want a Real ID to get one as soon as possible.”

Without a Real ID, Pennsylvanians won’t be able to access federally secure spaces. That means buildings like federal courthouses, which you often can’t plan months ahead to visit if you are called to be a witness, a defendant or a juror in a trial. It also means airplanes as the Transportation Security Administration has authority over those.

Does this sound familiar? It should. Congress first passed the Real ID Act in 2005. It was one of the many security initiatives taken in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

For years, there was back and forth. It was repeatedly juggled around Congress, with some legislators trying to change it or pull it back. It was delayed. States bristled under the requirements and passed their own bills in response. In 2012, Pennsylvania was one of 16 that passed an attempt to block it.

But like a glacier, Real ID’s progress has been slow but resolute. It just kept coming. Pennsylvania finally became Real ID-compliant — meaning it offered the enhanced-identification cards marked with the gold star.

The problem is that Real ID deadlines have become a joke. They are a threat from your parents to straighten up or they will turn the car around.

Yes, the pandemic is what put the brakes on the 2020 deadline. But even until then, the annual or semiannual stern warnings “to get your Real ID or else” were a constantly moving horizon. It isn’t anyone’s fault that the process has taken this long. However, the rollouts with dire exhortations to get the identification immediately, followed by yet another highly predictable delay down the road, have done more harm than good.

In 2019, after Real ID began to be issued in the Keystone State, PennDOT officials were flummoxed when the number of people applying for it was lower than they expected. What they didn’t seem to take into consideration was that another identification document would work, too.

A U.S. passport provides the same benefits as Real ID, plus it has been required for international travel including Canada and cruises, so more Pennsylvanians have them now. Between 2012 and 2019, applications for passports in the state rose 60%.

This time, the deadline and warnings are likely real, but if people think this is one more instance of PennDOT and the federal government crying wolf, can you really blame the people?