Raleigh, N.C. — Nine months after a state audit found thousands of driver's licenses had been issued to people with invalid Social Security numbers, the state Division of Motor Vehicles said fewer than 4,000 licenses need to be checked.

The audit found that, out of the 8.1 million Social Security numbers provided to DMV, almost 27,000 were invalid. The number didn't include the 1.7 million driver’s licenses in the DMV database that don't contain Social Security numbers.

The DMV began requiring Social Security numbers to issue a license last year.

DMV officials analyzed the audit findings over the last eight months, and officials said Wednesday that 3,581 licenses needed additional verification.

“We’ll send holders of the questionable licenses a letter early in 2008, asking them to present their licenses to DMV and to provide proper documentation,” Commissioner of Motor Vehicles William Gore said in a statement. “We’ll then verify their authenticity.”

About 16,000 of the licenses questioned in the audit have either expired or have been suspended, officials said.

Gore said the remaining questionable licenses likely are a combination of data entry errors, cases where names haven't been changed with the Social Security Administration and cases where applicants might have provided false Social Security numbers to obtain driver's licenses.

The DMV’s analysis found 3,437 license holders were deceased and hadn't been reported. Another 700 had names or birth dates that didn't match the records in the Social Security database.

Since August, the agency has used an online verification program that allows employees to check the authenticity of Social Security numbers.