Residents, organizations impacted by BMV closure ahead of November election

When United Auto Workers Local 14 President Tony Totty walked into the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles at 1600 Madison Ave. in May, he learned that it would be his last time at that location.

“They said, ‘Well we’re going to be closing in a month,’ and I asked them, ‘Well where’s the new location?’” he said. “And they said there isn’t one.”

The downtown BMV location closed in June. Lindsey Bohrer, a spokesman for the Ohio BMV, said the deputy registrar at the location retired, and the lease for the building was up. In Ohio, deputy registrars are privately owned, but in other states like Michigan, that’s not the case.

“The Ohio BMV solicited potential contractors to maintain a location at or near the existing location but did not receive interest,” Ms. Bohrer wrote in an email to The Blade.

In Ohio, deputy registrars can help citizens register to vote, issue driver licenses and state ID cards, create and maintain birth certificates and death records, inspect and register vehicles, and initialize and transfer motor vehicle transactions.

Ms. Bohrer said the BMV posted public notice of the closure at the beginning of May, but others said the closure caught them by surprise.

“We were blindsided,” Toledo City Councilman Vanice Williams said.

Ms. Williams represents the 4th District, which includes central Toledo. Although there isn’t much she can do about the location closing in her role on council, she brought the issue to the office of U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) in hopes that she could help.

“I just wanted them to listen to the concerns and dig in to why notice wasn’t given and to figure out why it closed in the first place,” Ms. Williams said.

As a national representative though, it’s out of Ms. Kaptur’s control.

“I’m a constituent of the state and federal government as well, and I use that office,” Ms. Williams said. “I used to run a high school down the street from there, so it was easy for my students who turned 18 to go get an ID or get their license renewed or whatever they needed.”

Mr. Totty brought the issue to state Rep. Elgin Rogers, Jr., (D., Toledo) and state Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D., Toledo). Mr. Totty was concerned that the location closed during a presidential election year, a concern that was shared by Mr. Rogers. To vote in Ohio, residents need a driver’s license or state ID card. Passports and military ID cards are also accepted.

“The people who need these services the most are the ones who are disenfranchised the most,” Mr. Rogers said.

Mr. Rogers worked with Bernie Quilter, the Lucas County Clerk of Courts, and Dan Fitzpatrick, the chief of government relations for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, to try to salvage the location. Mr. Quilter owns the title office that shared the Madison Avenue property with the BMV. He said he intended to purchase the space to keep it open, but it came at a price that he couldn’t afford. Mr. Quilter’s title office is still open, but while his other offices around Toledo are busy with business, Mr. Quilter said the Madison Avenue location has been hurt significantly by the BMV’s closure.

“It doesn’t make sense for people to come to the Madison Avenue location because they will still need to go to the BMV to get their plates or take care of other business,” Mr. Quilter said, whose other title offices are located with BMVs.

Candace Buckley, vice president of programs and services at Cherry Street Mission, said the the mission also relied on that location as an inexpensive way to help residents get state ID cards and birth certificates.

Ms. Buckley said in addition to voting, residents also need identification and birth certificates to get jobs. The Madison Avenue BMV was an eight-minute walk from the mission. Now, the closest BMV is on West Sylvania Avenue, a 10-minute drive.

The mission contracts with TARTA and only receives a limited number of passes. The mission was busing residents to the West Sylvania Avenue location and the Heatherdowns Boulevard location, which is about a 16-minute drive.

To help save money and get voting resources to residents, Ms. Buckley said the mission is encouraging them to connect with a program called VoteRiders. According to its website, VoteRiders will provide free rides to the BMV and cover the cost of birth certificates, social security cards, and identification cards. The state provides free ID cards for those who don’t have a license.

The other BMVs in the Toledo area include:

● 3606 West Sylvania Ave. in Toledo

● 3018 Navarre Ave. in Oregon

● 4460 Heatherdowns Blvd. in Toledo

● 4900 North McCord Rd. in Sylvania

Ms. Bohrer said the average wait time at deputy registrars around Ohio are about 11 minutes. Mr. Totty now uses the BMV at Heatherdowns Boulevard but said it’s still an inconvenience for him and the rest of the residents that live downtown.

“At the end of the day, we’re all citizens of the state of Ohio, and when you look at other states, this doesn’t happen,” he said. “Other states don’t allow the BMV to be a privately owned company that can apparently just shutter whenever they want.”