Illinois DMV Santa adds 304 custom license plates to naughty list: 'DZNUTZ,' 'IOWASUX'

Some Illinoisans could be receiving a lump of coal for Christmas from the Illinois Secretary of State this year after their vanity plate submissions made the naughty list.

That's right. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias took on the role of DMV Santa and put his elves to work, reviewing more than 54,768 vanity plate submissions and placing 304 custom car tag submissions on the naughty list.

The number of banned submissions is down from the 383 rejected in 2022.

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According to a press release, personalized plates were rejected due to their inflammatory or offensive nature, or because they were difficult to read.

So what exactly gets a plate moved to the naughty list?

According to the release, any combination of letters and numbers that can be construed as lewd or offensive, including expletives, racial epithets, sex and drug references and allusions to violence are flagged by the office elves.

Some of the custom plate denials landing on the naughty list include:

• BONER

• DZNUTZ

• EATBUTT

• IOWASUX

• XKXKKXK

• MILFS

• POOPSY

• QOOQQOO

• WOOPASS

"I appreciate the creativity and pride Illinoisans take in choosing their own customized license plates, but they must meet the standards of good taste and decency,” Giannoulias said. “We keep an eye out for anything tawdry, lewd or offensive, all of which are rejected and placed on our permanent rejection list."

The growing naughty list currently consists of 7,674 banned license plates.

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How much is a custom Illinois license plate?

The Pick-a-Plate feature allows applicants to search different combinations of letters — or letters and numbers — to see if they are available to buy.

Vehicle owners in Illinois pay an extra $94 for a new vanity plate that contains all letters, and an extra $47 for a new personalized plate which combines letters and numbers, according to the release.

Currently, Illinois has a total of 811,351 vehicles registered with vanity or personalized license plates − 279,500 vanity plates and 531,851 personalized plates.

For more information, visit www.ilsos.gov.

Chris Sims is a digital producer for the Journal Star. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisFSims.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Illinois license plate 2023: Car tags land on DMV Santa's naughty list