“...the department of health, upon request, shall furnish to any applicant, in lieu of the issuance of a certified copy, a verification of the existence of a certificate and any other information that the applicant provides to be verified relating to the vital event that pertains to the certificate.”
in lieu of the issuance of a certified copy, a verification of the existence of a certificate and any other information that the applicant provides to be verified shall be furnished.
So why wasn’t a certified copy issued? Why resort to a verification letter?
Why must State election officials and courts rely on a verification letter when an image reputed to be that of the LFBC is posted publicly? Why the extra work? Why not present the document?
“So why wasn’t a certified copy issued? Why resort to a verification letter?”
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That’s a good question. I’ve often wondered about it myself.
Of course, I don’t know what the President was thinking, but if I were President, I probably would have done the same thing, for two main reasons.
1) Because using certified copes would likely involve having multiple certified copies floating around. No matter how other people may be trivializing the birth certificate, it is an official — and very personal — document. Each certified copy is an original document, an original birth certificate of the President of the United States. I think it’s smart to keep those to a minimum, at least while the litigation is on a state level. In a hypothetical major Federal case or Congressional investigation, I’d probably feel differently.
2) There’s less to argue about in a Letter of Verification. With a birth certificate, there could be, for example, demands for a forensic investigation into the paper and the ink and the background and the border....
But a Letter of Verification is just that, a letter with a stamp and a seal. Unlike with a birth certificate, all that matters is the contents of the letter, and not its appearance. And since any question about where the President was born is a question of content rather than a question of appearance, the LoV seems simpler and more direct.
Thanks for letting me speculate. It’s all just a guess, but it’s one I’ve been thinking about.