MORNING VIEW FROM THE RIDGE:
POST 2 
THE CARD WAS WRONG
LYNN PAID FOR HER IDENTITY. MICHIGAN MAILED HER SOMEBODY ELSE’S. 
Lynn opened the envelope.
Brand-new Michigan driver’s license.
Her name.
Her information.
Then she looked at the little security portrait.
THAT IS NOT LYNN. 
A Black man.
And underneath him?
01/12/67.
Not Lynn’s birthday.
Not Lynn’s identity.
And apparently, she is not alone. Other Michigan residents are reporting newly issued licenses with what appears to be the same mystery man tucked into the card. 
Now somebody in Lansing may have a perfectly reasonable technical explanation.
Good.
I WANT TO HEAR IT.
Because this is not a grocery-store rewards card.
THIS IS GOVERNMENT-ISSUED IDENTIFICATION. 
You show it at the airport.
At the bank.
At government offices.
You use it to prove one of the simplest things government is supposed to verify:
YOU ARE YOU.
Lynn stood in front of their camera.
Provided the documents.
Paid the fee.
Michigan had the correct photograph.
And somehow the finished license arrived carrying another man’s face and another birthdate. 
That should bother everybody.
And here is where THE RIDGE gets uncomfortable.
Michigan’s Secretary of State wants enormous public confidence in the accuracy of the state’s records.
Fine.
THEN EARN IT WITH THE LITTLE RECORD FIRST.The one sitting in my wife’s wallet.
I am not claiming a strange photograph on a driver’s license proves anything about Michigan’s voter rolls.
It doesn’t.
But I am absolutely saying it earns questions about quality control inside an office whose entire business is accurate records.
THE RIDGE standard:
Wrong face means explain it. Wrong birthdate means explain it. Multiple people receiving the same mystery information means REALLY explain it. And calling something a “security feature” does not magically answer why somebody else appears to be on my wife’s license.Maybe there is an innocent explanation.
Then Michigan should give one.
Quickly.
Because government loves telling citizens to trust the system.
TRUST STARTS WITH GETTING THE DAMN CARD RIGHT. 
Lynn paid for her face.
She gave them her face.
SEND HER BACK HER FACE.
And before Lansing lectures anybody about confidence in millions of records, perhaps it should explain the stranger riding around in my wife’s wallet.
THE RIDGE watches the little things because little things tell you how seriously the big things are being handled. 
J.T. ~ Voice of Reason
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