MEMPHIS, Tenn. — People trying to renew their driver’s license or get a Tennessee ID found themselves waiting in a long line at the Shelby County Clerk’s Office downtown after two computers crashed.
The clerk’s office couldn’t tell how bad the delay was, but a customer told a WREG reporter she had been waiting for hours.
Over the last few months, the county clerk’s office has been plagued with problems, including a backlog of license plate applications and complaints about long lines to pick up the new state tags in person.
Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert said what happened today was out of her hands.
“You can call the state because it’s a state computer,” Halbert said.
She said workers noticed some glitches Wednesday in the computer system yesterday and the state sent out a tech to address the problem.
“We only have four computers in that room, and when I last checked, two were down,” Halbert said.
Halbert said lines were a little longer than normal because the system was down. However, she couldn’t tell us when the system would be fixed.
“It would be a state issue. We have nothing to do with the computers,” Halbert said.
Halbert said she wasn’t aware of a computer problem until she got a phone call from WREG Thursday afternoon.
In the meantime, the clerk’s office is scheduled to close again during the week of September 19 through the 23rd for staffers to catch up on the license plate backlog.
