![In Ohio, driver's licenses that expired on or after March 9 can be used as valid ID for voting in the 2020 election. [Evgenii Mitroshin / Shutterstock]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/63e4224/2147483647/strip/true/crop/980x551+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2F19%2Fdrivers-license.jpg)
From now through Election Day, ideastream is answering your questions about voting. You can send us your questions with our online form. Carolyn emailed asking whether boards of election will accept expired driver's licenses as ID, given the grace period on renewals during the coronavirus pandemic.
The answer depends on when the license expired, said Pete Zeigler, director of the Geauga County Board of Elections.
Voters may use driver's licenses or state-issued ID cards that expired on or after March 9, 2020, the date Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency, he said.
"But a driver's license still can be expired and not be valid," Zeigler said. "If my driver's license expired on March 8 [or before], that is not valid ID."
More generally, Ohio has extended validation for driver's licenses, state IDs and vehicle registrations that expired on or after March 9 until 90 days after Ohio's state of emergency ends or Dec. 1, whichever comes sooner.
In fact, the Ohio Department of Health has encouraged people with documents that expired on or after March 9 not to visit license bureaus to renew until after the state of emergency is lifted, even though the bureaus reopened May 26.
