It’s been at least a year since I read the details, but I believe that there is a legal procedure for altering a COLB if, for example, you change your name. I think it requires a court order, but Obama could have arranged that easily enough through a Chicago judge, his legal place of residence, which I THINK would be accepted in Hawaii.
Similarly, I believe you could change “negro” to “African,” or even change the citizenship if you had the proper documentation to do it.
So, the original certificate of live birth remains unchanged, but COLBs can be updated if the proper procedures are followed. That’s my recollection of the rules.
The general rule is that when a state makes a legal change, the records of same must be filed along with the original papers in the state’s vault. This means that if Barry’s adopting dad in Indonesia changed his name or citizenship, the previous docuemtns would be held in state/national vault along with the revision data. This also means that if he in fact was an Indonesian citizen and came to the state of Hawaii to ‘restore’ his supposed U.S. citizenship, the paperwork from Indonesia would be copied in the Hawaiian vault storage. It also implies that if he was in fact born in another country (Kenya or Canada), when his mother or grandmother applied for Hawaiian registration the BC from this other country would be copied in the HI vaults. Barry may or may not be able to allow access to specific documents without allowing access to all documents, but there are two in HI state government who have stated they have seen ‘a’ BC in HI files, without saying where that BC was issued or if it is one applied for after the boy was born in another country.
ANYONE can walk into Hawaii's DOH, at any time, and tell them that he's never had a copy of his birth certificate. All he has to do next is (a) fill out a COLB request, (b) sign a statement that he was born in Hawaii, (c) provide proof of identity:a drivers' license or government-issued ID would work, and (d) proof of residency for the past year, and...
BINGO! A freshly printed COLB!
If the requester has an original birth certificate on file, and wants to amend it, all he has to do is (a) and (c), and...
BINGO! A freshly printed COLB!