The California Department of Motor Vehicles has notified roughly 11,000 people with active driver's licenses that they must sit for new knowledge tests following the discovery of irregularities in their original exam results, The New York Times reported. Drivers who fail to comply within that window risk having their licenses revoked.
The affected drivers took written knowledge tests between July 2025 and April 2026, according to CBS News. The agency offered no explanation for what the irregularities involved, and when asked, officials declined to say whether cheating played any role, according to The Times. Drivers must schedule an appointment in advance — drop-in visits are not permitted — and are required to present the original notification letter when they arrive, CBS News reported.
Sacramento resident David Specht, who received the letter, said he called the DMV to ask what the irregularities on his test were, according to CBS News. "They said a lot of people received it, we don't really have an answer for you," Specht told CBS News. While stopping short of saying he was accused of anything, Specht raised the possibility that the DMV itself may have mishandled records, leaving the agency unable to reliably distinguish passing scores from failing ones.
The DMV issued a statement defending the action: "Ensuring the integrity of our testing process is essential. Knowledge tests play a critical role in confirming that drivers understand the rules of the road before they are licensed to drive in California," according to The Times.
State law mandates knowledge testing for several categories of motorists, including people getting their first license, newcomers to California, and existing license holders with problematic driving histories seeking renewal, according to The Times. Across California, the state has issued driver's licenses or ID cards to more than 35 million people.
This is not the first credentialing stumble for the DMV in recent months. Late last year, the agency disclosed that a software glitch had caused incorrect expiration dates to be assigned to Real IDs belonging to 325,000 cardholders — a flaw that could have left authorized immigrants holding cards that remained technically valid past the end of their permitted stay in the country, according to The Times.
