Ever since March, Hawaii’s license holders have to provide far more proof of identity than before, to comply with federal ID standards. Pat Murphy of Nuuanu thought she was all set when she gathered items to get her license renewed before her birthday next week. A city mailer told her what she’d need to bring.
“It said I needed a passport, which had just expired, so it also said a birth certificate would work,” Murphy said. “So I said, OK, I’ll take my birth certificate, I’m good to go."
She waited in a 2-hour line.
"I get up to the clerk and she goes, oh, your name doesn’t match your drivers license,” Murphy said.
“And I went, yeah, I wasn’t born with my married name. And she goes you need a marriage certificate, and I went, why? You don’t have that on your card, it doesn’t say that."
“The clerk said, oh ma’am, it only happens to the wahines. I went, are you kidding?" Murphy said. “I had a coworker say, oh yeah, yeah that happened to me."
The marriage certificate is required as proof of name change for women who took their husband’s last name. Murphy says she hasn’t seen her marriage certificate in the 40 years since she signed it.
"I could tear my house apart and look for it," Murphy said. “I got married in Texas. I’ve called them, they haven’t returned my call."
The state Department of Transportation website — http://hawaii.gov/dot/hawaiis-legal-presence-law — has a complete list of exactly what’s needed, marriage certificates included, and that link is on the city reminder card. Media spread the word, too, in advance of last month’s change. Some got the message.
"I knew the line was going to be long,” said Valerie Spotwood, in line — with her marriage certificate — at the Kalihi DMV. “I was listening to the news and it did share that all the documents you needed. I came prepared."
But many others hadn’t heard.
“Just like humbug for us,” said Alice Abad, on her third trip back to the DMV, trying to come with all the right stuff. “Too much requirements for us to bring, and then we have to go back and forth in order for us to know what are the requirements needed."
"I feel that’s totally unfair,” Andrea Nelson said of the marriage-certificate omission from the city reminder card. “Why would they discriminate against women? The men don’t change their name, but if they don’t list it on the paper than how are we supposed to know?"
The city says they meant no discrimination.
"It’s really not, it’s purely — it could be a male, too, that may have changed his name, and if that’s the case then he has to bring in something to show a legal name change,” said Dennis Kamimura, licensing administrator at the Honolulu Division of Motor Vehicle. “So again I apologize for the ladies out there. I apologize that we didn’t address that. It’s not even addressed in the notice, so what we’re going to do is go in and try to change it."
After our interview the city got through to the printing vendor for the reminder cards, and the more complete list of requirements will be on the batch mailed out for licenses expiring by December.
Meanwhile visit http://hawaii.gov/dot/hawaiis-legal-presence-law for complete details on the documents necessary.
And the DMV director advises, if you have exhausted all efforts to provide the required documents, ask to see a supervisor.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
