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Voting opens for new Florida license plate design

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles launched the website for Floridians to vote on a new design for the standard license plate.

Floridians can vote through Dec. 14 at vote4floridatag.com and pick one of four potential designs.

The designs, created by the department's in-house team, are an effort to increase legibility for automated enforcement and to add a seventh digit to the license plate. The state is running out of combinations with the current six-digit designation.

Earlier this year, the department proposed outsourcing tag and registration to the private sector, causing controversy among the state's local tax collectors who have historically assessed fees and issued the plates.

A highway department spokesman told the Miami Herald that the plan to outsource the tags is on hold "while the state gets information on whether privatizing could save money."

"The outsourcing and redesign came up at the same time, but we decided to separate those issues," Kristen Olsen-Doolan told the Herald. "We'll have an idea whether we'll (privatize) when we have hard information on what options will offer an advantage over others."

Matt can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.