Here’s the real problem: this law would require voters to identify themselves using a photo ID, and it has to be a specific kind of updated ID. Americans have been pushed over the last few years to convert their Driver’s License to a “Real ID,” which is a Divers License that has been verified with other documents, like a birth certificate or a passport.

If you are man, it is easy because presumably, you have had the same name since birth, so your Real ID Drivers License only requires your birth certificate.

But if you are a woman, and you are married, you probably changed your name to your husband’s, so you need a marriage certificate to prove your name change. If you have been married and divorced, you may have to prove THAT name change with a birth certificate AND a marriage certificate AND divorce papers from the first marriage, then a marriage certificate from your second marriage. It can get complicated.

Then there is my wife’s problem. As a man, I had no problem getting a Real ID, but my wife needed our marriage certificate. We were married in a Caribbean island over 30 years ago, and the marriage certificate has gone missing long ago. We have been requesting a replacement for over a decade, and have not been able to get one. It can’t be done online, it has to be by mail. It is not too expensive, only about $10, but it’s usually rejected for the wrong money. They always claim (when we hear any explanation at all) that we have sent the wrong form of payment, which they then keep. We’ve sent money orders, checks, cash, etc., and probably spent over $100, and still nothing.

So my wife can’t get a Real ID because the country we got married in won’t cooperate. I suspect our marriage license is lost, and they can’t supply a copy. In any case, until we can get this straightened out, my wife has no valid ID, and can’t vote under Trump’s new law, and if she can’t vote for this reason, there are many others on the same situation.