Real ID

[Carborendum]

I remember when the "Real ID" began being floated around the 2012 election.  I had considered myself a Libertarian (I was actually registered as a Libertarian) with conservative leanings.  I now consider myself a conservative with libertarian justifications.

I didn't know all the details of what it was supposed to be.  It was simply touted as a "National ID Card."  I didn't understand how that was an infringement that was any worse than a driver's license or social security card.  But for some reason liberals were all for it.  Conservatives were ambivalent.  Libertarians were up in arms about it... except me.  I just didn't get it.  And I didn't really look into it.

Today, the Real ID has made front page news.  Why?  Conservatives are still ambivalent.  I have not been among my libertarian friends in a while.  One old friend of mine does appear to still be up in arms about it.  And liberals have done a 180.  They were all for it when Obama was in office.  Now they think it stinks of Nazi-ism now that Trump is in office.  That 180 doesn't really sound like a sincere assessment of what it actually is.

But as chance would have it, I do share some of the liberal sentiment about the difficulty of certain people who have change their names -- particularly divorced/widowed/remarried women.  Is this enough to warrant undoing this legislation altogether?  I don't know.

One of the provisions of the new legislation is that states will have some latitude in how the determination will proceed when dealing with people who have had a name-change.  Until we start seeing what states do, we may find that it is too onerous, or useless, or both.

I would think that red states will pass a document trail requirement that may take some time that we don't have between the passage of the bill to the first election afterward.  I'd suppose that blue states will simply "take people's word for it", making the process completely useless anyway.

There was an instance where this may be a problem for certain individuals in unusual circumstances.  A US woman was pregnant when the couple decided to move to Canada.  The baby was born in Canada to two US citizens.  He was a US citizen.  But...

The family moved back to the US before the baby could even walk.  They didn't think anything about citizenship at the time.  They have since passed on.  The boy grew up and joined the army (I believe).  He didn't seem to have any problems until he tried to apply for a Real ID (as an old man).  He had no proof of US citizenship.

His birth certificate said that he was born in Canada.  It didn't say anything about the citizenship of his parents.  And by the time he found out about it, the rules changed for the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (which used to be the way to take care of that).  So, as far as everyone involved in this can tell, they have no way of allowing him to vote under this circumstance.

So, he served in the army.  But he cannot vote.  It may be a rare exception to the rule.  But that is jacked.

Edited Monday at 03:27 PM by Carborendum

[hzdbl5]

I find myself having a hard time getting worked up over this.  We’ve had how many years for folks to get this taken care of?  What’s happening now is people who just haven’t bothered to take the necessary steps are finding out there are consequences for their inaction.  I could make a comment about the parable of the 10 virgins but won’t.

I fully realize this perspective is somewhat lacking empathy and I own that.

My wife was also in the circumstance where her surname name changed when we were married.  She later went to probate court to make the first name by which she had been going her entire adult life her legal first name.  Following that, she also went through the process to have her birth certificate updated to reflect her alternative names.  This didn’t change her birth name, it simply noted there are other legal names by which she is known.  When she went in to upgrade to an enhanced license (it’s like a Real ID on steroids) she had all her paperwork with her and had no issues whatsoever.  It took her no longer than it took me to make the change.  The issue women who’ve change their name are running into is they don’t have supporting documentation.  It’s a legal change; one needs to keep that documentation handy and in a safe place.  This wasn’t the only time my wife has been asked to present that supporting documentation.

If one doesn’t have their documentation, it takes time and effort to obtain it or recreate it.  With the deadline looming just a couple of days away, time is the one resource no one has.