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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Sun-Times staff

Illinois’ license plate ‘Naughty List’ highlights 2023’s most obscene, rejected requests

The Illinois Secretary of State’s office this year denied 304 applications for specialized license plates that landed on its “Naughty List.” (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)

Over 300 vanity and personalized license plates were rejected this year by the Illinois Secretary of State for being “too obscene or defamatory.”

The “Naughty List” included plate requests for EATBUTT, WOOPASS, POOPSY and IOWASUX.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias read some of the denied plates aloud in a video posted online Wednesday.

The entries were rejected by a team well-versed in “pithy puns, lecherous language and sneaky swearing,” Giannoulias said.

This year’s entries join Giannoulias’ growing list of more than 7,674 license plate combinations deemed offensive or difficult to read.

“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 in a statement. “We keep an eye out for anything tawdry, lewd or offensive, all of which are rejected and placed on our permanent rejection list.”

Giannoulias’ office has the right to reject applications for any plate that “creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste and decency” under state law.

The office received 54,768 requests for vanity and personalized plates this year, 304 of which were denied.

While most plates were rejected for “profanity or crude language,” some like XKXKKXK or QOOQQOO, were denied because they were difficult to read and therefore could be an issue for law enforcement.

Illinois drivers pay an extra $94 for a new vanity plate, which includes only letters or only numbers, and an extra $47 for a new personalized plate, which features a combination of letters and numbers. And costs add up depending on a variety of factors. For instance, tacking on the price of a vanity plate to the fees that come with registering a new car, drivers can expect to pay $410.

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