thanks....
I remember seeing Kobach’s letter but I don’t remember seeing Dr. Onaka’s response.
The questions stunk.
The whole request and response violated the HDOH’s policies. The HDOH website says that to request a verification you have to fill out an actual application, just like you have to do to request a certified copy of a birth certificate. That’s why the certifying statement at the bottom of the actual letter of verification says that the original record was used to certify the birth facts; you’re not supposed to be able to GET a verification of ANYTHING without submitting the birth facts for the record you’re asking about. I don’t have time to fetch it right now, but Okubo explained in a 2005(?) article why that is - to make sure the requestor and HDOH are talking about the same person.
The only one who actually obeyed the HDOH’s stated rules was Bennett.
And the same certifying statement was on all the verifications, even though Bennett asked for birth facts to be verified and none were, and neither Kobach nor MDEC even asked for any birth facts to be verified OR even provided enough information for the HDOH to be able to verify anything, according to the HDOH’s stated policy, posted on their website. Neither MDEC nor Kobach asked for an exception to the requirement that they submit an actual application, either, (though Kobach asked for expedited service), so it wasn’t that an exception was requested and granted.
The statement saying that the original file was used to verify the birth facts does NOT mean that any birth facts actually were verified on the verification, since none were verified on either the MDEC or Kobach verifications and they still had that certifying statement.
So that certifying statement does not mean that Onaka was verifying the truth of any of the FACTS that were listed on the Bennett verification; he could well have been verifying that those facts are simply “items from the birth certificate”, as Bennett asked. And given that Onaka revealed that the BC is non-valid, that HAS to be what Onaka was verifying on those items: that they are what is claimed on the (legally non-valid) record.