Unable to renew Mass. US driver's license online

[Langsuan Man]

[...]

When I joked at the DMV that they were giving us oldsters that option because we might die before a 5 year license expired

May have been embarrassing in this case, but quite logical. AARP is definitely guilty of this: when it gets around renewal time I get a lot of offers for discounts on multi-year memberships.

A few years ago I was back in the states with my old CA license long expired, and looked into getting a new license in PA. They had the toughest residency requirements of all the states I looked into, and I figured it had to do with the all those new voter ID laws in recent years. I never before heard of this choice of expiry that you mention, but despite the answer the clerk gave you I suspect at it's core this may be yet another device to keep people from voting -- "sorry, we can't accept an expired license as voter ID." You may recall it was a GOP politician from PA that boasted he managed to get the strict voter ID laws passed as a step to keep the president from getting re-elected in 2012, the statement was caught on video.

There is also the catch 22 in Pennsylvania in that you have just 30 days to obtain a PA license so that you can change your car registration, yet you cannot get your license until you have not only show your original Social Security Card, but also a utility bill to show your address. The catch 22 part is that it takes a minimum of 30 days to get your first utility bill

As far as the PA voter ID law that was stuck down by the State Superior Court before the last presidential election (2014) due to fact that many residents of both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had no reason to obtain a DL

[ubonjoe]

I checked on renewing my Texas license a few years ago. It had to be done by mail and was going to have to get a international bank draft to pay for it. Decided to not bother with it,

Joe, what forms of payment was TX willing to accept for mailed DL renewals?

Surely, an international bank draft wasn't the only method available with them for mail-in renewals.

Though Texas had a mail-in renewal, I found a web renewal easier to do. I was able to use my credit card. The renewal was for six years. However, the second time I had to go in person. Every 12 years you have to do it in person so they can take a new pic.

That is why I had to do it by mail. Previous renewal was done online. I was sent a notice I could do it online since I had a good driving record.

[ubonjoe]

I checked on renewing my Texas license a few years ago. It had to be done by mail and was going to have to get a international bank draft to pay for it. Decided to not bother with it,

Joe, what forms of payment was TX willing to accept for mailed DL renewals?

Surely, an international bank draft wasn't the only method available with them for mail-in renewals.

That was the only option I had other than having somebody get a money order for me in the states to send in with the application. That was about 4 years ago so things might of changed.

I found the info online but had questions that they were quick to answer when I emailed them. One question was would they send the license to me here and the answer was yes.