WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins urged Gov. John Baldacci on Friday to ask the Department of Homeland Security for a waiver so that Maine will not be penalized for missing a deadline for states to upgrade their drivers licenses.

Come May 11, the federal government will require states to meet new federal standards for drivers’ licenses that citizens will need to enter federal buildings and fly on commercial aircraft.

The Department of Homeland Security will give more time to states to upgrade their drivers’ licenses if they ask for a waiver by March 31.

“Unless Maine requests this extension, thousands of Maine residents will experience substantial delays at airports and may have difficulty entering federal buildings to request benefits or meet with their representatives in Congress,” Collins, a Republican, wrote in a letter to the governor.

Maine was the first state in the nation to pass a law last year barring the use of any state funds towards implementing the Real ID legislation, which Congress passed in 2005. Sixteen states have followed Maine’s lead.

Collins told Baldacci that making such a request does not mean the state has to comply or not comply with the law.

“Making this request involves no cost to the state of Maine, but will save citizens a great deal of aggravation, inconvenience and frustration,” Collins wrote.

She even told Baldacci what to say in his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff: “On behalf of the state of Maine, I respectfully request an extension … for complying with the Real ID rule.”

Maine Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, authored legislation that would repeal the Real ID law.

Civil libertarians blasted Collins' letter.

“Maine was right to reject Real ID,” said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

“For Senator Collins to ask the Governor to defy our state law is an insult to Maine’s elected officials – and to ordinary Mainers, whose privacy will be sacrificed to this costly, misguided program," she said.