Secretary of State Offices to Stay Open Late

The computer outage that affected all of Michigan's Secretary of State (SOS) branch offices starting Wednesday has been repaired, and branch offices will stay open later today, Saturday and Monday to help deal with an anticipated backlog of transactions.

In an announcement posted on the SOS website, officials warned, "it will take some time to address the backlog created during the outage."

Branch offices will observe the following hours:

• Friday, May 20 - All branch offices will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, May 21 - The department's seven SUPER!Centers will be open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Monday, May 23 - All branches will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

In addition, the Secretary of State's office announced Thursday that late fees will be waived for affected customers coming into the branches through the end of business on Friday, May 27.

"We understand that this has been an inconvenience to our customers and we want to do everything we can to assist them," spokesman Randall Thompson said. "Unfortunately, it will take some time for us to recover once the system is up. Our offices handle 80,000 transactions a day."

The Secretary of State's Office has also alerted law enforcement authorities that some customers were unable to renew their vehicle tabs or driver's licenses during the computer outage.

To find a branch office, visit the Secretary of State's on-line branch locator. The closest office to Farmington and Farmington Hills is the Livonia SUPER!Center, 17176 Farmington Rd. in Livonia.

More information is available on the Secretary of State website, mi.gov/sos, facebook.com/michigansos and twitter.com/michsos.