Mar 17, 2010

Hawaii lawmaker tries to stem flood of 'birther' requests for Obama's records

08:08 AM
By Alex Brandon,

APA Hawaii Democratic state senator has introduced two bills that he hopes will put an end to the "birther" debate that has overwhelmed the state Department of Health with requests for Barack Obama's birth certificate, The Honolulu Advertiser reports.

One would open up state birth records under strict conditions to people who currently have no legitimate right to see them and the other would permit government officials to ignore people who won't give up seeking them.

Click here and here to read the bills.

Democratic state Sen. Will Espero, who introduced the two bills, says does not necessarily believe that everyone should see birth certificates that are now restricted, The Advertiser reports, but hopes to trigger legislative hearings on the issue.

"It's all because of the noise about the president not being born here," he says.
"I believe he's born here. Most of Hawaii believes he's born here and it's not an issue here as it is with these mainland 'birthers.' It probably would not end all of the controversy because I believe the people that are these 'birthers' have some other motives. Whatever you say or provide to these people, they will not be happy with anything."

A spokesperson says the health department, which has laid of four people in recent budget cuts, gets 40 to 50 requests each month for a copy of the president's birth certificate and by law is required to respond to each within 10 days.

All of them are from the mainland -- particularly Arizona, South Carolina and Florida, says spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

"They're spurred on by these 'birther' blogs who direct them to bombard the Health Department even though they have no legitimate right to the information," she says. "They've been misled to believe that the state of Hawaii gives out birth information to anyone who requests it, but really our law protects birth information. We're entrusted with protecting people's vital records. To open them up would mean opening them up to identity theft and other types of concerns."

The requests keep coming even though State Health Director Chiyome Fukino — a Republican — tried to put the issue to rest in 2008 by declaring that she and Hawaii's registrar of vital statistics had personally seen Obama's birth certificate.

"This has gotten ridiculous," Fukino told The Advertiser at the time. "There are plenty of other, important things to focus on, like the economy, taxes, energy. ... We need to get some work done."


(Posted by Doug Stanglin)
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Imbeded links to the bills at this link:
POLL at this link:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -records/1