New look, numbering planned for Indiana license plates

INDIANAPOLIS – Design plans for Indiana’s new license plates would center on a state flag theme and drop the decades-old numbering system that identifies the car’s home county.\nThe public can begin voting Tuesday for its pick among four designs for the new standard license plate that would be given out to motorists next year. The new plates will replace those issued in 2003 that are green-blue pastel with a farm landscape.\nAll four designs offered by the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles center around the state’s flag. They include two with close-ups on portions of the flag and another with state seal to one side and a state flag image in the background.\nBMV Commissioner Ronald Stiver said Monday the four finalists were picked from more than 40 proposals submitted by schools, design agencies and state departments.\nVoting on the new designs will be conducted on the BMV’s Web site and at license branches through April 18. More than 150,000 votes were cast in 2002 to select the current plate design.\nThe BMV plans to have stickers with county names across the plate’s top, replacing the one- or two-digit code identifying the county where the vehicle was registered. The new plates would have a mix of letters and numbers.\nThe Indiana House, however, approved a bill last week containing a provision that would require the BMV to keep the county codes on the plates.\nTruck plates and the more than 60 specialty tags offered by the BMV, however, do not include any county identification.