North Carolina's banned vanity license plates
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Illustration: Allie Carl, Maura Losch/Axios
The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles has rejected nearly 10,000 personalized license plates — a number growing every month in an attempt to keep offensive plates off the street.
Driving the news: Axios requested a list of the vanity license plate applications that the DMV rejected.
- There are currently more than 300,000 vanity plates in circulation, according to the News & Observer.
Catch up quick: The N.C. DMV keeps a running list of personalized license plates that are not allowed to hit the streets.
- A personalized plate comes with an upfront cost of $30, plus an annual renewal fee.
The intrigue: Not all bans are forever. The state recently decided to allow specialized plates relating to the LGBT community that were once banned, like QUEER and GAYPRIDE, WFDD reported.
- Sometimes, the DMV will approve a vanity license plate but then retroactively revoke it. Last year, an Asheville woman made national news for fighting to get her custom FART license plate back.
Here's a sampling of the plate applications that were nixed:
The political: BIDENSUX, DMPTRUMP, TRUMP 69, 0BAMALIE, H8FAUCI, H8LBRLS, NCDMVSUX
The school spirit: H8D00K, UNC SUXX, NCST8SHT, D00KY, 0HEELYA
What did you say to me?: UPYUR$, B0FADEEZ, BORN2KILL, B1TEME, SCREWU2, M0VEB, 0HELLNAW
I'm scared: DETHDLR, KILLER, GUN4HIRE, GUILTYAF, GUNRUNR, CUINHELL, MURDER, KILSH0T, IH8PPL
Stay off drugs: #1ST0NER, DANK, G0TTWEED, ACID, G0NJA, DRGDLR, C0KEDLR, RUHIGH
The indecipherable: 01101010, MNMMNNMN, MWWMMWWM, S5S5S5S5