Illinois Secretary of State: Some vanity plates requests too offensive
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[January 28, 2023]
By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Customized vanity license plates are a popular way
for drivers to distinguish themselves from the pack. However, some don’t
make the cut.
“BITEME” is one of 400 requested custom license plate letter
combinations that were rejected by the Secretary of State’s office last
year. The requested plate falls into the "potentially offensive"
category.
“It’s subjective,” Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias told
The Center Square. “Everybody’s threshold is different. We don’t want to
offend people.”
On his car, Giannoulias has the standard Land of Lincoln, easy-to-read
license plate with numbers and letters, he said.
“This isn’t the first time that I have been called boring,” he joked.
Giannoulias encourages motorists to get creative and come up with clever
and catchy license plates, he said.
One elderly driver with a handicapped insignia and a good sense of humor
opted for PASS ME. A female Iron Man competitor picked IRON WMN. One
hairdresser chose HAIR GOD.
“We want people to visit our website and Pick-A-Plate. Life is short.
Have fun with it,” Giannoulias said. “It does bring revenue to the
state.”
Last year, 54,236 people in Illinois requested customized license
plates, opting to pay $27 to $100 a year more to put a message on their
license plate.
Plate requests that were rejected last year include DUCKYU, COKAIN and a
plate that is hard to read – WMWWWMW.
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Illinois Secretary of State Alexi
Giannoulias during inauguration in Springfield Monday
- BlueRoomStream
“Our priority is to make sure that license plates are easily
identifiable for law enforcement,” Giannoulias said. “We want people to
have fun, enjoy the process and be creative. But we want to make sure
that the lines aren’t crossed.”
In Illinois, unique license plates are divided into two categories:
vanity plates and personalized plates. Vanity plates contain up to three
numbers or one to seven letters. Personalized plates contain both
letters and numbers. The Illinois Secretary of State’s website is the
place to go to order one.
The most popular dedicated plate last year has the Firefighter Memorial
insignia. A portion of the fee from that plate goes to the Illinois
Firefighters Memorial at the Illinois State Capitol Complex in
Springfield.
The White Sox insignia license plate came in second.
The green and red environmental plate that features the Illinois state
bird, the cardinal, perched on the state prairie grass, big bluestem,
ranked third.
The Cubs logo license plate ranked number five.
“Most plate requests are approved,” Giannoulias said. “A small
percentage do fail to meet the standards of what we believe are good
taste and decency.”
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