DMV expands Internet presence for services

But maybe it’s the electric washing machine of our time.

It saves labor, which saves money, which makes our lives better.

Take the Department of Motor Vehicles, for example. No one wants to actually go there.

If only there were a way to go there … virtually.

The powers that be have heard the cries of the masses.

Troy Dillard, the director of the Nevada DMV, said Friday that the agency has opened what he called a new online portal.

That is a fancy term for a revamped website where drivers now can do all sorts of things.

They can change their address — the first time that has been offered online — or renew their license and car registration.

To do so, customers will have to create an account. They will need their driver’s license, the last four digits of their Social Security number and an email address.

The registration is the key, Dillard said. On the old website, DMV officials could never be sure that the person making a transaction was the driver or vehicle owner. Now they can be, he said.

Testing, where state employees were able to use the website before it went public this week, indicated that about 80 percent of the transactions will be address changes.

The goal is to get people to stay away from the DMV’s physical offices unless it’s necessary.

Two bills before the Legislature have the same goal. One would eliminate the requirement to renew driver’s licenses every four years and just make it eight years, while another would smooth the process of registering a new car by allowing it to be done online.

“We really don’t want you to have to come in to the DMV at all” when you buy a new car, Dillard said.

Similarly, the secretary of state’s office and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District have made it easier in recent years to do business without actually going anywhere.

The secretary of state launched a system in which voters could register online in Clark County in 2010. It went statewide and got a big publicity push last year, just in time for the presidential election.

The evidence shows that more people were registering to vote. By Election Day, nearly 50,000 people had registered using the new online system, and more than 70,000 had updated their registration information online, according to information from the secretary’s office.

Overall, more than 1 million people cast ballots in the election, an all-time high in Nevada.

It’s similar at the library district, where spokeswoman Patricia Marvel said the roughly 630,000 library card holders visited the district’s website
6.35 million times in the last fiscal year.

The website allows card holders to search the catalog, reserve books and movies no matter which local branch they’re housed in, or renew books and movies that already are checked out.

Like the DMV’s new site, it saves everybody time and money.

Dillard, the DMV chief, said the new website and the bills being considered could eliminate 1.5 million in-person transactions over four years.

That is 30,000 a month, saving labor for the DMV, saving money for the taxpayers, and making life easier for everyone.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.