I just read a post coming from the Santa Cruz Sentinel in CA that said that after October 2020 a Real ID (apparently an ID issued by the DMV that requires you show your passport and other corroborating documents) to be able to board a plane in the US. Does anyone have more information on this as to how it may affect citizens living abroad?

This only deals with US drivers licenses...if a person is trying to use only a US drivers license as ID.   Many states do not issue RealID compliant driver licenses yet.   See below TSA webpage/snapshot for more info.

 

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification

Florida obeyed the real ID act and I had to get my new Florida Driver license a few years ago.  Florida would NOT issue a driver license unless one complied with the rules.  I had to schedule an appointment at the DMV, show up with proof of citizenship, proof of ID, and two recent, within 30 days bills of some sort with my name and address on it.  Note some of my bills I only pay every six months (car insurance for example), so plan ahead, and bring some extra recent credit card statements, utility bill, or whatever.  It was not clear if they would issue a non driving state ID card.  Anyway, if one does not have the real ID driver license, one can't get on a plane or supposedly enter any federal building without more ID showing proof of citizenship and ID such as passport.  That is my Florida experience.

When I wanted to renew my Hawaii DL by mail (which I had done 5 years earlier by mail and you can renew by mail only twice) I couldn't satisfy certain documentation requirements..docs which oscillated around proof you "really" lived at a certain Hawaii address.   Docs like a recent electric/water utility bill, property tax payment, rental contract, recent bank statement using a Hawaii address, etc.  It varies by state as to their DL/State ID requirements but all of them are slowly tightening up ID issuing requirements to meet federal law,

 

 

This only deals with US drivers licenses...if a person is trying to use only a US drivers license as ID.   Many states do not issue RealID compliant driver licenses yet.   See below TSA webpage/snapshot for more info.
 
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification

Thanks Pib, that clears up everything.