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I took the occasion last year to pick up the phone and call the department of vital records. I got straight through, no waiting, and spoke with a lady who was very forthcoming, no hesitations or dissembling. I was of course asking about the forms the COLBs are printed upon, not asking for individual data. But the experience was cordial and prompt. And the lady did not try to avoid answering anything which I asked. She confirmed openly that vital records are not destroyed, are kept in environmental controls vaults and are available if so requested, though asking for a long form Birth Cert would take longer than a week since the actual vault and document would have to be accessed to make a certified copy. I was checking on John Klein's big lie --which he had Lou Dobbs repeat on air-- that 'only a COLB could be accessed from HI since all paper documents were destroyed when the electronic system was begun.' The lady assured me that such was not the case at all.

I took the occasion last year to pick up the phone and call the department of vital records. I got straight through, no waiting, and spoke with a lady who was very forthcoming, no hesitations or dissembling. I was of course asking about the forms the COLBs are printed upon, not asking for individual data. But the experience was cordial and prompt. And the lady did not try to avoid answering anything which I asked. She confirmed openly that vital records are not destroyed, are kept in environmental controls vaults and are available if so requested, though asking for a long form Birth Cert would take longer than a week since the actual vault and document would have to be accessed to make a certified copy. I was checking on John Klein’s big lie —which he had Lou Dobbs repeat on air— that ‘only a COLB could be accessed from HI since all paper documents were destroyed when the electronic system was begun.’ The lady assured me that such was not the case at all.

Thank you MHGinTN for sharing your personal experience. I have no doubt about its veracity. I also want to thank you for a post that contributed substance to our debate on this issue without any name calling or insults.

Yes Janice Obubo, Director of Communications for the Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed that all original records are still on file, nothing has been destroyed. Ms. Okubo’s exact statement was “we have copies of copies” in which she meant that there are multiple backups for all original documents and the originals are indeed there.
Get a subpoena, and an interested party can see the original.
On the issue of getting a copy of the original long form, I had a $100 bet with Freeper Rolling_Stone that you could not get a long form issued since 2001. Freeper Danae said that she is from Hawaii and would order one. I offered to double the bet and donate $200 to FreeRepublic if a long form Hawaii birth certificate issued in 2010 was to be scanned and posted on this website. I waited the requisite six weeks for a long form Hawaii birth certificate to be posted. It is now seven weeks and no such document has appeared.
I understand that Danae had a death in her family and wasn’t able to respond quickly but any other Freeper from Hawaii could have responded. None did.
I based my side of the bet on trusting Hawaii Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo’s on the record statement that the state of Hawaii no longer issues copies of long form birth certificates and the 2010 Certificate of Live Birth is the official and only birth certificate of the state of Hawaii and it’s a “short form” computer print out.
I find it hard to believe that not one single person who was born in Hawaii has taken the time to scan a newly issued copy of a long form birth certificate on the
internet if they are indeed still available. That leads me to believe that you can’t get a new copy of an old (prior to 2001) long form.

I am reasonably certain that the state could produce a certified copy of an original long form under subpoena.