Jan 18, 2022 - News
Rejected Illinois vanity plate requests
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
The Illinois Secretary of State's (ILSOS) office has rejected more than 6,000 applications for "offensive" words on vanity license plates over the past two years.
- A small committee in drivers services reviews the applications and makes a call based on "good taste and decency," says ILSOS representative Henry Haupt.
- "While judgement is discretionary, the goal is to make sure license plates are easy for law enforcement to read and are not offensive to the motoring public."
Between the lines: We recently got a list of these words through a public records request.
- Most rejected words had to do with sex, drugs and violence, but others were just kind of juvenile.
- They offer a disturbing — and sometimes hilarious — peek into the psyche of your fellow Illinois drivers.
Bathroom requests: FARTMAN, FECES, TURDS, POOPIN, POOPOO, PASSNGAS.
Why: FLOOZE, FLOOZIE, FLOOZY, FLUZEE, FLUZIE, FLUZZY.
Not super offensive: ACID, BEER, BIDEN, DRFUNK, ESTROGN, EUNUCH, MENOPAS, ZAMBONE.
Deeper dive: A whole page of rejected names, some NSFW:
