Governors and legislators are looking at the presidential candidates views on Real ID and hoping to end a dispute between the states and federal government over new nationwide rules to make driver's licenses more secure that has been in debate since 2005. While many states have rebelled and refused to comply with the Real ID law, such as Maine and South Carolina, many have complied. To date, States have received very little federal money to defray the estimated $4 billion cost of revamping identity-verification procedures in driver's license bureaus. McCain supports the rules and has acknowledged the burden on states but has not said how he would pay for it stating, "The 9/11 Commission recommended that the federal government set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses. Consistent with these recommendations, the Real ID act established federal guidelines to prevent fraud in the issuance and acquisition of identity documents. I support full implementation of Real ID but understand that states need to be given enough time and funding to implement the requirements."

It will be interesting in the coming months as these issues are drilled into further what type of proposal McCain will offer in regards to the funding of Real ID and the timeline for implementation.

See Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (IL) position on this issue above. INPUT will be providing weekly coverage of the candidates via this blog.