D.C. Courts Marriage Bureau Didn’t Realize New Mexico Was a State

Do you ever see the gross incompetence of government and wonder how on earth we get along as easily as we do?  Here’s one of those moments.

Gavin Clarkson, a man who recently ran for New Mexico’s secretary of state, applied for a marriage license in the nation’s capital earlier this month.  Congratulations to Clarkson on his upcoming nuptials to his fiancée from the District of Columbia.

But when they went to the Courts Marriage Bureau on Nov. 20 to apply for their marriage license, things went south. Like too far south. The clerk there didn’t realize that New Mexico was an actual state.  In America.

Here’s more:

The clerk wouldn’t accept Clarkson’s driver’s license – from New Mexico – as proof of his identity. Rather, the clerk, who mistakenly believed Clarkson was a foreign citizen, said he would have to provide an international passport to get the marriage license.

After Clarkson objected, the clerk went to check with a supervisor, who confirmed Clarkson would need a passport.

“You know you are from flyover country when you are applying for a marriage license, give them your New Mexico driver’s license, and they come back and say: ‘My supervisor says we cannot accept international driver’s licenses. Do you have a New Mexico passport?'” Clarkson posted on Facebook recently.

Unbelievable.  Clarkson reported that the other people in line were laughing about the incident, which only lasted about twenty minutes.

Clarkson’s wife, Marina, immigrated from Argentina in the 1990s, becoming a legal permanent resident and then a naturalized U.S. citizen. She speaks English fluently, though she has a slight accent. But the clerk complimented Clarkson, not Marina, on how well he spoke the language. He said his wife was in disbelief, wondering: “Why are you complimenting him on his English?”

Of course, we all make mistakes. But these moments do remind those of us who advocate for self-governance that bureaucrats rarely are the type of people you would want to entrust with major life decisions.

Image Credit: Good Free Photos

Hat Tip: WBIR