I actually used to help people with this — you would be absolutely shocked at how difficult it is for some people.
I once had to help this angel of a woman who was blind, in her mid 80s and lived in a trailer right on the edge of two states. Well, she received a bit of money every month from the state - like $50 - to help with heating. She had received so many awards for all of her volunteer work - she knew everyone. But apparently when she was born, her property was in one state and then the states changed the state line by a few miles so then she was actually born in the other state. She had been trying for years to just get an ID, but no one could figure out how to do it. I had to take it to the literal head of the agency and get her to make an exception. It still took months of me pushing DAILY and I knew all the right people.
Then there was the business woman who was born in one state and moved to a different state when she was a child and had already had a DL for 40 years. But regulations had changed and now she had to show original birth certificate and couldn’t just continue to renew like she had in the past. Well, the state she was born in had notoriously lost many thousands of birth certificates in the 70s. They refused to issue her a DL (or anyone else whose BC THE AGENCY THEMSELVES HAD LOST). I had to get her a passport because they were more easily able to work with extenuating circumstances than a state agency and then use that to get her a DL. But it shouldn’t take hundreds of dollars and months to do this and this is an undue burden for millions.
Can’t get a copy of your social security card without a birth certificate. Can’t get an ID without your birth certificate. Can’t get your birth certificate without an ID. It is wildly common. Literally hundreds of cases like this - just me personally working on them. I’m just one person and I had hundreds and that wasn’t even my primary job…I was just angry that no one was helping people.
Don’t even get me started on the 18 million military personnel files that burned up in St Louis. The government loses the records and then refuses to help people because they don’t have the records.
I’m happy to answer any questions you might have! I’ve spent the last 20 years resolving issues with both federal and state agencies. I only see cases where things go wrong…so I have a couple decades of examples!
I was a congressional staffer on the constituent side. I helped people in these exact kinds of situations, although I mostly did VA related casework. There are so many specific situations and problems that come up that people wouldn't believe.
As someone whose uncle worked for the National Records Center, the records that were burned were mostly for WW1 and WWII Army records. It is doubtful this impacted that many people needing an ID since most have passed. Following the fire, the NPRC undertook extensive efforts to reconstruct basic service information using surviving auxiliary records, such as pay records, morning reports, and other documents. Modern techniques, including infrared imaging, have been used to recover information from charred documents.
The last time a state changed boundaries was in 1961 and was Kansas and Missouri.
My aunt lost everything in Katrina and was able to get all her documents replaced.
“In 1993, North Carolina and South Carolina joined forces to redraw the border. The initial border was marked with trees and rocks that no longer existed, so the two states Geodetic agencies joined forces to uncover historical data and use geospatial technology to overlay maps and try to redraw the line as accurately as possible (Thompson). The entire 334 border line was redrawn, which had huge implications. Many residents living near the border found they had been moved to a new state. For some people living near the border, one of the rooms in their home was in North Carolina while another was in South Carolina. This had impacts on taxes, work licensing, and other implications that came with moving states.”
Separately, I included the NPRC simply to emphasize that individuals are punished when federal and state agencies have lost their own records. SC lost thousands of birth certificates a few decades during the transfer from offices in cities down to be stored in the capital. This was a huge issue, as people could use a combination of affidavits, census records, baptismal records, etc. to obtain a passport but NOT to obtain a state ID. So the requirement in effect was to pay hundreds to obtain a federal ID simply to obtain a state ID. This is essentially a poll tax because state agencies simply don’t understand how to work with nuanced cases.
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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26
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