If there was an audience for Gov. Mark Sanford's comments after signing the Division of Motor Vehicles reform bill into law Thursday, it might well have been Thomas Cory of Forest Hills in North Charleston.

Cory's wife had lost her license and needed a replacement. So the couple spent more than two hours waiting around the Leeds Avenue DMV for her name to be called. The lines seemed to stretch on forever.

As far as he was concerned, it's about time somebody did something about service at the notoriously slow state agency.

"They need to speed up somehow," he said. "We went to the Air Force base yesterday to get my wife a new I.D. card. It went much faster there -- boom, boom, boom -- and they were done."

That's a gripe politicians have been hearing for years, but they also sense an opportunity: Whoever can take credit for fixing the DMV stands to gain a political windfall. As Cory put it, "The DMV deals with the public a lot more than other state agencies."

Such sentiments fit in well with Sanford's idea of running the state more like a Wal-Mart.

"For too long, DMV has been the poster child for what doesn't work in state government," Sanford said Thursday. "It's the perfect example of good, hard-working people doing the best they can but operating within a fundamentally flawed system."

The process of fixing that system began long ago, but the change has been pronounced in recent weeks. Sanford's executive order last month instituted new customer service policies and set in motion an Internet-based system for handling certain transactions. Another aspect of that order, weekend business hours at selected offices, will be implemented starting this week. In the Lowcountry, the Leeds Avenue office will handle Saturday business.

This year's DMV reform bill grew out of a task force appointed by Sanford before he took office, but several of its recommendations reflected the findings of a 2002 ad hoc DMV committee led by Rep. John Graham Altman III, R-Charleston.

The bill Sanford signed Thursday takes the DMV out from under the Department of Public Safety and establishes it as a standalone agency answering directly to the governor.

Sanford named Marcia Adams of Irmo to serve as acting director of the DMV.

Adams has served as principal administrator of the agency for the past four years. Her appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

The law, which takes effect immediately, decentralizes some DMV functions.

Drivers soon will be able to get tag renewal stickers and registrations from county treasurers' offices or private entities that could charge a service fee beyond the standard $24 for the transaction.

Drivers' license expiration dates would be extended from five to 10 years for most people. The agency also can contract with public and private entities to administer driving tests.

Democrats in the Statehouse expressed some skepticism.

Senate Minority Leader John Land said the problem with the DMV has not been the structure, but the Republican-dominated Legislature's failure to properly fund the agency.

"DMV is in the shape it's in because it's never been properly funded," Land said. "You can't do anything without the money to operate."

Sanford called it the beginning of meaningful change in the beleaguered agency, but he and Adams urged people to not expect change overnight.

"Will the lines be immediately cleared at DMV? No. But this is where the progress starts," Sanford said.