REAL-ID Causing Problems in Florida

Two months ago, REAL-ID went into effect in Florida and many residents are having problems proving their identities to obtain the new driver’s licenses. Florida is one of the few states complying with the law as many states have said that REAL-ID is too expensive to implement and the federal government has extended the deadline several times.

To get a state ID or driver’s license, even if it is a renewal or replacement, you must come in armed with your original birth certificate or passport, Social Security card and two items mailed to you that contain your address.

This last part is very difficult to comply with for several Floridians because there are several towns, such as Mexico Beach or Crystal Beach, where everyone has a post office box and no physical address.

If you live at home with your parents, it is unlikely that you will have bills in your name. If the house bills are in your spouse’s name, you’ll have problems proving your address.

If your name has changed because of marriage or divorce, you must provide certified copies proving it.

You will also run into problems is someone has been married several times. You will need marriage, divorce, and/or death certificates in order to be compliant.

Those who make it through this document juggernaut become Real ID-compliant and get a tiny gold star on their licenses. At some point, this will be needed to go into a federal building or to board a commercial airliner.

Those looking for their IDs are getting extremely frustrated due to the difficulty in obtaining the proper paperwork.

But just as often people are confused, and don’t know what to do.

Like the woman born in 1951 whose birth certificate was destroyed in a hospital fire and couldn’t be found in state archives.

And the construction superintendent on the Interstate 4 Connector project and his wife. They left their birth certificates and marriage license in a safe deposit box back in Missouri.

Or the high school math teacher who insisted her 1958 birth certificate, also from Missouri, was the original.

“I’m sorry, ” Nieves says, feeling for the ridges of a stamp on the document, “but I’m not going to be able to take this. It has no seal.”

“Did they do seals back then?” asked an annoyed Jerry Curtiss of Brandon.

Like many of the others, Nieves turned her away.

“I can offer you the number for the vital statistics office in Missouri,” she offered politely.

“I’ve been here for over 20 years,” Curtiss said, “and I can’t get my license renewed because I don’t have a birth certificate.”

The ridiculous part is expecting every single DMV worker to know every single type of certification for all legal documents in every state. It is impossible to know which states have raised seals, ridges, or just a stamp. Some states also do not issue the original to citizens. You can obtain a copy of the original, but the original stays in your state of birth.

If any of these people are senior citizens, it may be difficult to obtain birth certificates at all. Many have kept a copy of their certificate, but for many different reasons, the original no longer exists. If their copy isn’t certified, they will be turned away.

If you were born at home, it is likely you were never issued a birth certificate either. If you were born in Puerto Rico, the state has said all birth certificates are no longer legal or valid as of July 1, 2010 and Puerto Ricans must obtain new ones. This has led to a lot of confusion that isn’t yet cleared up because most of the information is being passed on by word of mouth.

I truly pity the remaining Holocaust survivors living in Florida. It’s unlikely any of these have a birth certificate or would be able to obtain one. This would apply to naturalized citizens who passed all the federal checks to become a citizen, but don’t have a birth certificate because their country doesn’t issue them.

It’s not like terrorists can’t get legitimate papers. We’re supposed to believe that they are too stupid to circumvent this law, but they can have the knowledge needed to build and explode bombs.

Even if a person does obtain all the correct paperwork and gets their little gold star, explain how this is going to stop a homegrown terrorist?