Maybe somebody in DMV's vehicle registration office was just bored. Maybe they have quotas to fill: send out so many rejection slips, and you've done your job for the day.
For whatever the reason, DMV told a friend of mine it could not accept the check he had mailed in with his automobile license renewal. The check was legible, signed and dated properly, with the correct dollar amount, written in black ink.
His check came back in the mail with a yellow MFR-95A (Rev. 2/07) LICENSE RENEWAL CARD REJECTION NOTICE form. The "other" box was checked, and there was a message written in black ball-point ink:
the division cannot accept checks written in gel ink or colored markers. Please resubmit check writen in black or dark blue ink. Thanks!
Oh good grief. Yes, the check had been written with ink from a gel pen — but how could DMV even tell that? And what was wrong, anyway, with using a gel pen — quite a popular kind of writing instrumen?
DMV spokeswoman Marge Howell says the rejection message was a mistake. “It is not our policy not to accept gel ink. We’re going to be talking with the folks over there [in vechicle registration] to make sure they understand.”
Some ink colors don't work — they're not legible to the check scanner machines. Thus the request for blue or black.
This is the first time DMV officials have heard of anybody getting a rejection slip for using gel ink, Howell says. Has this happened to you? Have you had this kind of hassle with DMV — or any other government agency?
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter and editor since 1976, he took over the 
