Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

28MOTOR VEffiCLE DEPUTY REGISTRARSAll deputies process registrntion renewals for motor vehicles;.boats, snowmobiles,and all-terrain vehicles. They also process initial titles and title transfers for motorvehicles and boats. However, only 81 out of the 168 deputy registrars processdrivers' licenses. These deputies are shown in Figure 2.3, along with other stateand county driver's license stations. Overall, there are 130 stations that renewdrivers' licenses, including at least one in every county. We did not include statedriver's license stations that give driver tests but do not renew drivers' licenses.These stations are usually served by state stafffrom a larger station for a few daysa month, but do not have a camera to process driver's license renewals.Comparison with Other StatesAccess tomotor vehicleservices inMinnesota isslightly aboveaverage.We used two measures to compare access to motor vehicle services among the 50states: the number of locations per 100,000 residents and the number of locationsper 1,000 square miles. Neither measure, by itself: is a good indicator of access.Sparsely settled states such as Alaska, Wyoming, and North Dakota cannot be expectedto have as many locations per 1,000 square miles as other states. Nor candensely settled states be expected to rank high in terms oflocations per 100,000residents. As a result, we compared Minnesota with 20 states thai Iiave roughlysimilar population densities: the ten states that rank immediately above and theten states that rank immediately below Minnesota on population density. Table2.1 lists each state, ordered by population density, along with each access measure.We found that:• Minnesota ranks slightly above average in access to motor vehicleservices compared with other states that have similar densities.Out of these 21 states, Minnesota ranks 8th in locations per 1,000 square milesand 7th in locations per 100,000 residents. Minnesota has 2.0 agents per 1,000square miles, compared with the median of 1.76, and has 3.86 agents per 100,000residents, compared with the median of3.58. Minnesota also ranks slightly aboveIowa, which has nearly the same population density.Among alISO states, Minnesota ranks higher than 15 states on both measures andlower than 7 states on both measures. States with higher access rankings are Oklahoma,Texas, Pennsylvania, lllinois, Arkansas, Maine, and New Hampshire. Forexample, Oklahoma has almost 300 private agents that provide driver licenses andmotor vehicle titles and tabs.We conclude that:• Minnesota provides reasonably good access to motor vehicle, driver'slicense, boat, and snowmobile services.