![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6aaa0b33-2f33-4e53-8a26-5150f09b3f05_1734039656.jpg\")
<\/a>LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nFlorida residents with mismatched names on their documents are being denied driver\u2019s licenses, creating challenges for those trying to prove their identity. <\/p>\n
Steve Plunkett, 70, is one of the affected residents. Born in Price, Utah, Plunkett said his mother gave him her maiden name, Will, on his birth certificate after his biological father passed away. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was born, my biological father had already passed on. His family was trying to take me away from my mother, so my mom, when I was born, gave me her maiden name, which was Will,\u201d Plunkett said. <\/p>\n
However, Plunkett said he has never gone by the name Steve Will. His mother later remarried and gave him her husband\u2019s last name, Plunkett, but the change was never made legally. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a common practice for years for people my age,\u201d Plunkett said. <\/p>\n
Now, the discrepancy has caught up with him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never knew when I turned 70 I couldn\u2019t get a driver\u2019s license because I don\u2019t have a birth certificate,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Plunkett\u2019s expired license and Social Security documents list his name as Plunkett, but he cannot obtain a birth certificate from Utah without a current ID. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve taken my identity. I don\u2019t exist no more. At least not Steve Plunkett isn\u2019t here anymore,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Edith Foster, another Florida resident, is facing a similar issue. Born Edith Nunley on a U.S. military base in Germany in the 1950s, Foster was adopted at age 10 and has gone by the name Edith Thomas throughout her adult life. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never had a problem going to school, anything,\u201d Foster said. <\/p>\n
However, when she moved to Florida and attempted to obtain a driver\u2019s license, she was denied. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to get my driver\u2019s license here in Florida, and they wouldn\u2019t recognize my birth certificate I had been given by the court,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Foster previously held a Real ID-compliant license in Pennsylvania, but Florida\u2019s policies differ. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a legal citizen of the United States, and Florida won\u2019t give her a Real ID,\u201d said Foster\u2019s daughter, Mimi Brewer. <\/p>\n
Noelle Branning, the Lee County tax collector, explained that Florida does not accept Real ID credentials from other states. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are bound by their policies, procedures, rules, and regulations,\u201d Branning said. \u201cEven if you had a Real ID credential in another state, Florida does not reciprocate with other states for those Real ID documents.\u201d <\/p>\n
The situation has left residents like Foster and Plunkett feeling disheartened. <\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, I\u2019ll probably be dead by the time Florida gives me a chance to get a license,\u201d Foster said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t prove who I am,\u201d Plunkett added. <\/p>\n
Cara Marshall, another resident, summed up the sentiment: \u201cIt makes me go, “Who am I?\u201d<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida residents face driver\u2019s license denials over mismatched documents LEE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Florida residents with mismatched names…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146244,88012,15333,146242,146246,28,30,29,146247,21408,146240,356,146239,146245,146243,7602,53896,4944,146241,118905,92256,13949],"class_list":["post-358565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-adopted-resident","tag-birth-certificate","tag-drivers-license","tag-edith-foster","tag-expired-license","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-policies","tag-germany","tag-identity-proof","tag-lee-county","tag-mismatched-documents","tag-name-discrepancy","tag-noelle-branning","tag-pennsylvania","tag-real-id","tag-social-security","tag-steve-plunkett","tag-tax-collector","tag-u-s-citizen","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}