Use issuer-specific formats only as unique OCR candidate selectors

Jurisdiction-specific identifier formats are strongest as candidate selectors, not as automatic validators. First establish the issuing jurisdiction from independent header evidence, then scan OCR nodes for exact format matches and accept only one unique candidate. Preserve punctuation in the canonical output, and compare against the existing extraction before replacement. Numeric-only formats remain risky because dates, postal codes, and audit numbers can collide; require label or spatial evidence when ambiguity remains. Derive rules outside the sealed holdout and measure replacements and regressions separately.

Applies when: parsing identity numbers from OCR across multiple issuing jurisdictions. Keywords: OCR driver license jurisdiction regex unique candidate spatial parser