COLORADO, USA — “NOPE.” You “CANT.” The Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) has “0FOXGVN.”
Those are just three of the combinations on the offensive/omit list for personalized license plates in Colorado.
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has a 566-page list of combinations that will automatically be rejected if requested for personalized license plates.
Read the full list of automatically rejected plates:
Two that were approved caught the eye of a Next with Kyle Clark viewer, who wanted to know why they received the OK.
Those plates were “GAS EM” on a Tesla and “KILLARY” on a pickup with a Trump/Vance sticker.
The DOR, which oversees the DMV, did not make anyone available for an interview but provided information via email.
“The Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has reviewed these configurations and has determined that they should be recalled. The DMV will be notifying the customers that they will be required to return the plates and choose another,” the statement said. “The Department of Revenue deeply apologizes for the oversight of these offensive license plates and is reviewing the process to ensure it does not occur again. We encourage all Coloradans to act with respect towards each other.”
According to the DMV, they were approved based on explanations provided by the vehicle owners on the form required when requesting personalized plates.
The DOR denied a request for those explanations saying they are not public records, but rather covered by the “Driver Privacy Protection Act.”
Each year, the DMV puts out a list of rejected personalized plate requests.
In 2022, the DMV rejected the request “BUBBI,” which is a term for a Jewish grandmother. The DMV said in an email that it could not find the reason it was on the omit list.
Also rejected that year was the word “VOTE.”
Read the full list of plates rejected in 2022:
According to the DMV, now that license plate combinations are four letters and two numbers, i.e., ABC-D01, the license plates VOT-E01 and VOT-E02 would never be issued, so VOTE is excluded too.
There are 40,000 four-letter word combinations that are on the omit list, including “KYLE,” for the same reason as “VOTE.”
“LESBIAN” and “GAY” are on the omit list too.
The DMV said they were added to the omit list “two system conversions ago” and that the agency is open to removing them from the omit list.
There are 32 pages of rejected plate combinations from 2023.
Read the full list of plates rejected in 2023:
For terms that are questionable, but not on the omit list, three DMV managers review the submission, and the decision is made by majority vote.
The data received from the DMV also showed that the historic black license plates that started getting issued again in the middle of last year are now the second most popular license plate behind the white plate with green mountains. Although, if you count temporary license plates, the black plates move down to third, with the temps taking second.