During the 2019 session, a section of the state budget bill passed by the Legislature included a section that directed the Department of Transportation to design and produce special "blackout" license plates.

The blackout plates, which became available July 1, have been remarkably popular. The speed and scale in which they've been ordered by the public is unprecedented in the history of Iowa automotive history.

"This is the first time we've done anything this significant," said Paul Cornelius, the DOT's Title, Registration and Plates Commissioner. "Nothing has ever really been like this. We haven't had any other plates that have been this significant and, I would say, have been this popular, this fast."

When the DOT first made non-personalized versions of the plates more accessible at local county treasurer's offices in September, it barely took a week for them to sell out or run low in most of those counties. It took another week, but all of those treasurer's offices have been restocked.

Since they became available in July, the DOT reports that 19,500 blackout plates have been ordered, a third of them personalized.

The responsibility for creating to these plates doesn't belong solely to the DOT or the Iowa Legislature, but also to average Iowans who willed the plates into existence and advocated for the license plates they wanted to see in the world.

A solution to a problem

State Sen. Charles Schneider, a West Des Moines Republican currently in his second term, had been hearing growing concerns from his constituents.

Drivers had been ordering the specialized college license plates for Dordt University, a private Christian college in Sioux Center, and pairing them with customized plate covers that covered up the college name to create ad hoc versions of the then non-existent blackout plates.

But people were concerned that covering up so much of the plates was a legal gray area. Some constituents even reported to Schneider that they'd been accosted by law enforcement and told it was illegal, while other law enforcement representatives said it was fine.

"It seemed to be a waste of time for both law enforcement and for people who were being pulled over," Schneider said. "People were asking me if we could have a discussion on this topic during the next legislative session to get more clarity on the issue."

That's when Schneider realized that the easiest thing to do would be to create the kind of black and white license plates people had wanted all along.

After trying to attach the mandate for blackout plates to a failed bill about window tinting, the senator was eventually able to get it passed into law by including it in the budget bill.

Simple by design

"Blackout plates shall be designed by the department," Divison VI of the bill states. "A blackout plate's background shall be black, and the plates letters and numbers shall be white."

The design mandated by the legislators was straightforward and simple, leaving Cornelius to make specific decisions around the font. Unlike the standard plates with the word "Iowa" written across the top in all caps, Cornelius chose a serif font that contrasted with the sans serif letters of the plate's main lettering, giving the "Iowa" of the blackout plates a standout capital "I."

The popularity of the striking design has far outnumbered that of the modified Dordt plates, only 1,594 of which have been ordered to date.

How to get your own blackout license plate

The blackout license plates cost $35 for a standard alpha-numeric plate. A personalized plate costs an additional $25 ($60 total). Non-personalized plates can be ordered at your local county treasurer's office, or you can order a blackout license plate at the DOT's website or by mailing in a special form.

Money paid for the special blackout plate goes to the Road Use Tax Fund, which funds road and bridge projects throughout Iowa. Nearly $850,000 has already been raised through the sale of the blackout license plates for the fund which operates with $1.673 billion in total state funding.

Aaron Calvin covers trending news for the Register. Reach him at acalvin@registermedia.com, 515-556-9097 or on Twitter at @aaronpcalvin.

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