As the state moves to implement the new technology behind Governor Spitzer’s plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, some are skeptical that the required equipment will be ready in time to process new applications. Others question whether the policy — technology aside — will make the state safer, as its proponents suggest, or make it more vulnerable to terrorism and fraud.

Mr. Spitzer’s plan relies on new scanners to verify an expanded list of DMV-approved documents; their use will require Department of Motor Vehicles employees to take a rapid training program.

With Social Security cards no longer a mandatory prerequisite for obtaining a drivers license, the state will expand the list of documents that can count toward proving identity — currently 46, according to the New York DMV’s Web site — to 60. The newly acceptable documents are being kept secret in order to discourage residents from using them before the new system is in place, according to state officials.

Using hardware and software from L-1 Identity Solutions, a Connecticut-based corporation, local branches of the DMV will scan documents to a central office, run by a specialized staff, where they will be checked for authenticity. A spokeswoman for L-1 Identity Solutions said the company supplies similar document verification technology to 21 states and to multiple state DMVs.

Separately, L-1 will provide facial recognition software that will check license photos against each other to prevent the issuance of fraudulent IDs under multiple names, a process that a spokeswoman for the Mr. Spitzer’s office, Jennifer Givner, described as “a tremendous security feature.” Among county clerks, who this week voted overwhelmingly in opposition to the policy, there are many who are skeptical of the screening equipment’s effectiveness and the timetable for implementation. Last week, the Wayne County clerk, Michael Jankowski, mockingly referred to the document scanners as a “magic box coming down from Albany” and said he had been given few details on its specifications.

Mr. Jankowski also worried the state would be unable to train DMV workers before the first phase of the policy, which starts on December 1.

“We have DMV employees who are great, but have never had any training in verifying documents,” the Rensselaer County clerk, Frank Merola, said. “I don’t know how they would be able to train our clerks” to do something that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trained specifically to do.

The clerk for Schenectady County, Richard Blythe, said he was not worried about the time frame because heavy opposition to the policy and the scale of its changes could slow it down. “Living in the governmental world, I’ve learned things don’t always happen when one thinks they might,” Mr. Blythe said.

Ms. Givner said the state had a plan for a “seamless, efficient rollout” that would occur in phases, targeting every level of government from the top down. A spokesman for the DMV, Ken Brown, said the state is conducting seven training sessions with each regional branch before the start of the program to ensure that the equipment is used effectively.

A spokesman for the Coalition for Secure Driver’s Licenses, Neil Berro, said the equipment’s effectiveness does not affect the merits of the new policy, which they oppose.

“The idea that we should be jumping in the streets because they’re implementing new technology is just false,” Mr. Berro said. Social Security numbers are an important means of identification, he added, and losing them would “undermine any upgrade of technology” and increase the risk of terrorism.

The DMV’s security measures adequately compensated for the looser requirements, a State Police spokesman, Sergeant Kern Swoboda, said yesterday. “I understand there’s a lot of concerns with security, and that people say we’re opening the doors to terrorists,” he said. “But is a terrorist going to come into our country and go get a valid driver’s license?”

The president of the New School, Bob Kerrey, who was a member of the 9/11 Commission, said he was open to the possibility that lowering requirements for drivers licenses would help catch terrorists, but has not made a final determination.