The line already snakes out of the parking lot, just 15 minutes after doors opened at the Illinois Secretary of State’s drivers license office in Des Plaines #twill

The line is not moving quickly. To say the least.

Someone was nice enough to tell the seniors among us that they can go to the front.

That age cutoff is 65. The gentleman in front of me - he’s 64...

Sitting in this drivers services line that’s barely moving, and in fact growing longer - my mind drifts to stories I’ve reported about the sometimes curious ways Secretary of State Jesse White has chosen to fill positions in his office http://www.suffredin.org/news/newsitem.asp?language=english&newsitemid=5547

Our #FOIA lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s office may be resolved faster than those in line here get new licenses @mvtopic – bei IL Secretary of State Driver Services Des Plaines

The #FOIA lawsuit centers on the Secretary of State’s refusal to release personnel records for a relative of Chicago Ald. Carrie Austin.

Austin is one of the true nepotism champs of our state. And her office got raided by the feds last year https://www.wbez.org/stories/grand-jury-probes-austins-family-members-top-aide-food-stamps/94a724b3-5b58-44c6-9169-8858d90e6806

Esteemed colleague @brushtoniltimes and the @ILTimes filed a similar #FOIA suit vs the Secretary of State before us. Read more about it here #twill https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/a-broken-records-unit/Content?oid=11454127

Been here an hour and still count 50 people ahead of me, though I can’t see how many are lined up into this alley behind the IL SOS office.

Don’t know how many behind me - you can’t even see the end of the line from the door, bc it wraps around the neighboring office bldg – bei IL Secretary of State Driver Services Des Plaines

Just learned “ @ILSecOfState can’t be tagged in photos” on this website

Maybe we can subsist on these wild berries that provide shade to us waiting here endlessly for new Illinois drivers licenses. Anybody know if they’re edible? – bei IL Secretary of State Driver Services Des Plaines

Upon closer inspection these are grapes. My yiayia from the old country used to pick these leaves from the forest preserves to make dolmades.

The line stretches into the alley behind the @ILSecOfState office.

An employee of Mr White has come out to remind us to social-distance and to stay out of the alley.

It was a tight turn, but the Sam Adams beer truck managed to leave the Jewel without running us over – bei IL Secretary of State Driver Services Des Plaines

Nearly 2 hours in line, and an @ILSecOfState worker finally grants an exemption to the over-65 rule to this remarkably patient 64-year-old gentleman, who I’m nominating for Illinoisan of the Year, if there’s such a thing – bei IL Secretary of State Driver Services Des Plaines

Coming up at last on the 6th and final bend of the labyrinthine path to the @ILSecOfState drivers license office door. Line almost as long as it was at 745 am. Who knows how many inside at front of line ...

2 hours 15 minutes in line and we have 1st direct contact with a @ILSecOfState employee!

Eduardo gives me a piece of scrap paper with the letter B in a circle and says my estimate of another hour is about right.

Another 30 min to get inside but from there “it goes fast.”

People in line for 2.5 hours and @ILSecOfState employee comes out to announce “the system is down” so you can’t get a “real ID.” Seems nobody wants one anyway.

Here’s same guy telling me I can’t take pictures. I tell him I will anyway. It’s a public place. He walks back in

He’s back with a security guard who has pulled me out of line to tell me I can’t take photos on state property

Inside I ask for the manager. She asks me where I had been in line and puts me back in the exact spot I had.

Then my phone battery died. Everything inside was normal. Camera guy told me to remove my mask, clicked an awful mug (u try to stay in line for 3 hours and look good) and told me to put the mask back on.

After paying $30 (+$1 credit card fee), I’m good with the state of IL

In these times, it’s the least of anyone’s problems.

But really - 3 hours and 10 minutes to renew a drivers license?

That’s without even taking a drivers test or an eye exam.

Do better @ILSecOfState

I had not driven far from the state drivers license office when my cell rang-the very nice spokesman for Mr White advises you go in the late afternoon for the shortest wait.

He said some people are showing up at 430 or 5 am at offices that open at 730 am

And the spokesman for @ILSecOfState assured me that “it’s a free country” and I should not have been told by employees at their Des Plaines office that one is forbidden from taking pictures ... at the public place where we were lined up to have the state take our pictures.