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‘Inflammatory or offensive': These Illinois license plate requests were rejected in 2024

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias revealed Wednesday that his office rejected more than 300 vanity and personalized license plate requests for 2024

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Drivers got points for creativity with some unique vanity license plate requests in 2024, but those efforts didn't pass the scrutiny of the Secretary of State's office.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias revealed Wednesday that his office rejected more than 300 vanity and personalized license plate requests for 2024.

Of the 60,537 requests made, 335 were denied "because of their inflammatory or offensive nature or because they were difficult to read."

“Illinoisans consistently display a great deal of creativity when choosing their customized license plates, but the plates that hit the road must meet the standards of good taste and decency,” Giannoulias said in a statement. “Our team are well-versed in lecherous language and sneaky swearing, all of which are rejected and placed on our permanent prohibited list.”

Examples of some of the rejected requests include:

*naughty language ahead

  • HOKTUAH
  • GYATT
  • MUNCH
  • BICHIN
  • JAGWEED
  • BADARSE
  • AXEHOLE
  • ILLCUTU
  • HOHOHOE
  • ABADMF
  • WEENIE
  • DUCKOFF
  • SHIDDED
  • UGEWANG
  • HICCAF

According to state law, the Secretary of State's office has the authority to reject any application for personalized or vanity plates that “creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste and decency."

As it stands, the state's total rejection list sits at 8,015 license plate combinations.

According to the office, the “Pick a Plate” feature allows residents to customize their plates, while also checking to see if a plate has already been purchased by another motorist.

A plate with a combination of letters and numbers will set a motorist back $47, while a vanity plate with all letters costs an extra $94, on top of the price of obtaining a plate in Illinois.

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