Typical government goof up (not political)

[Royce]

This is one of those things that I think is so STUPID that you just have to laugh about it.

My wife and I have been married for 28 years. We are in the process of getting passports for the first time. A friend who works in the county register's office suggested that we get new copies of our birth and marriage certificates. She said that sometimes the process just goes more smoothly with the passport people, if new, certified copies of birth & marriage certificates accompany the application.

The birth certificate stuff went through without a hitch. New copies issued. When our friend started to process the request for a new marriage certificate she entered my name, ROYCE MERITT, and there was no record of a marriage certificate ever being issued. She did a little investigating and discovered that when our marriage certificate was originally entered into the state system they spelled my name wrong MERRITT instead of MERITT.

To cut to the chase we now have to file an ammendment and pay $8 to get that changed. It just seems so typical that one would have to pay $8 to get the state government to fix something that they screwed up 28 years ago.

Please don't turn this into "GOVERNMENT BASHING". I understand that there may be many, many reasons to file for an ammendment to a marriage certificate. If the policy is that an ammendment costs $8 so be it. In this case it just seems silly.

[kbproctor]

This one could go political real quick, but you are right. I would find that quite annoying, myself.

On the other side of the coin, I had a lady at DMV help me with the title on my old '71 Chevy Truck. There were some twists and turns in getting it titled even though it had been owned by the previous owner since it was new. She explained everything laughed at the rules with my wife and me and slipped us a color copy of the original title to put in the scrapbook for the truck. Even though there were more steps to getting it done than there should have been, she made it a pleasant experience, overall.

[maodiver]

I don't see this as political at all. Bureaucracy (thanks to Google for the spelling help) is not political. This thread is anti-bureaucratic, not political, IMHO, and I think that most people, political or not, can agree that the rules in place in some bureaucracy are freakin' hilarious.

There...my word for the day is Bureaucracy.

[Cold]

Just renew it with the misspell. If it hasn't bothered anyone so far, why worry?

[Host Ray]

Why did you need a marriage certificate for a passport?

[Uncle Jesse]

Most government employees are pretty nice folks. The further they get removed from the public they are supposed to service the more out of touch they become. The founding fathers never intended for us to have a strong central governement but strong state governments.

There are reasons for all of the rules that government services must follow, most were good reasons, some not so good. We all like to laugh about the warning labels on various equipment and goods. They would not put the warning not to try and stop the chain on a chainsaw with your genitas if someone had not done some extremely unintelligent. Same thing with govt. rules, for the most part, there is always that thing about power corrupting to deal with.

[Royce]

Why did you need a marriage certificate for a passport?

If I understand it correctly, I don't need a copy of the marriage certificate. However, my wife will. Since she will need to provide a copy of her birth certificate the last name on her passport application will not be the same as the last name on her birth certificate. Therefore, she will need a copy of the marriage certificate to prove the 2 names are the same person.

[Royce]

Just renew it with the misspell. If it hasn't bothered anyone so far, why worry?

Good idea but I doubt that would work.

My wife needs to provide a copy of her birth certificate. Since the last name on her passport application will be different than the last name on her birth certificate, she will need a marriage certificate to prove that 28 years ago she married Royce MERITT. At the moment the state thinks she married some guy named Royce MERRITT not Royce MERITT. Therefore, unless we get the marriage certificate changed it doesn't prove who she married.

[kbproctor]

At least they aren't telling you that the first marriage is null and void and that you need to get married again. We don't need to be giving spouses a chance to change their minds after they have figured out what they got into.

[forthebirds12]

Rules are rules BUT....

My mother worked for Vital Statistics in CA for 31 years and then another 10 years after she retired. Why did they use her after she retired? Because she knew more about the rules than 10 of the newer workers. More than likely if you had gone up the latter a few rungs you would have found someone that knows that the rules can be bent depending on the circumstances. Because you did not make the mistake you probably would not have had to pay the $8 fee if you had got to the right person. Most new workers are afraid to bend rules.

Jerry
Retired State Worker that knows how to bend the rules