1. A method for automatically determining the issuing state of a license plate, said method comprising: processing via at least one optical character recognition engine, an image of a license plate acquired by an automatic license plate recognition engine, wherein each optical character recognition engine among said at least one optical character recognition engine is tuned to a particular state; analyzing confidence data output from said at least one optical character recognition engine to estimate an issuing state associated with said license plate; and merging multiple observations related to said issuing state to derive an overall conclusion and assign an associated confidence value with respect to said confidence data and determine a likely issuing state associated with said license plate.