California’s troubled Department of Motor Vehicles will get a new leader Dec. 31.
Gov. Jerry Brown has designated Bill Davidson as acting director. Davidson has served as the DMV’s chief deputy director since 2016 and has worked at the agency for 16 years. He’s also worked for the California State Transportation Agency.
The Monday announcement comes after director Jean Shiomoto announced plans to retire at the end of the year.
Shiomoto’s departure follows a tumultuous year for the DMV that included hours-long lines at offices across the state and a series of errors related to the state’s automatic voter registration program.
Shiomoto on Friday said the DMV failed to transmit 589 voter registrations to elections officials ahead of the November election, potentially preventing those people from voting.
