A real headache: Why women married before 1986 have trouble securing REAL IDs at local DMVs

Carole Springsteen-DeLuca just wanted to get a REAL ID driver’s license.

Instead she found herself having to make five trips over six weeks to both the Department of Motor Vehicles and Islip Town Hall. She had become entangled in a bureaucratic mess that some older women across New York are finding themselves in because of a change in the way the state printed marriage certificates 40 years ago.

“I’m just so furious about it,” said Springsteen-DeLuca, 62, a medical receptionist, of Medford. “You’re trying to do the right thing because you need this license to travel and you have to go back so many times. It’s not fair to people.”

Under federal law, since May 7, REAL ID driver's licenses, permits and nondriver IDs are required for air travel within the United States. Travelers can also use a passport for domestic flights. The new license requirement left many New Yorkers scrambling for appointments at local DMV offices, causing a lack of available slots in the months before the deadline. 

Springsteen-DeLuca wasn’t in a rush to get her REAL ID but didn’t expect the ordeal she faced.

She took her husband’s last name, Springsteen, when the couple married in 1985. Her first husband — Bruce Springsteen, no relation to the rock icon — died in 1993. When she remarried in 2004, she hyphenated her old and new surnames. If a person’s name has changed, in order to get a REAL ID, people must bring documents that show “how your name changes,” according to the DMV's website. A marriage certificate is one example, according to the agency.

But marriage certificates issued before 1986 did not include a place to list a wife’s new surname, only her maiden one. As a result, employees in DMVs across the state have been denying some REAL ID applications despite women presenting the certificates, along with other forms of identification that show their married surnames. Some couples have even gone to their town halls to get remarried and the updated certificate to satisfy DMV employees, town clerks told Newsday. 

“It doesn’t make sense at all,” Babylon Town Clerk Gerry Compitello said in an interview. She pointed out that the groom's last name is on the certificate, which should be enough proof to show how the bride got her new surname. Compitello, who leads the Nassau-Suffolk Town Clerks Association, wrote a letter to state DMV Commissioner Mark Schroeder in May asking him to develop a policy to address the confusion. 

Tim O’Brien, a spokesman for the DMV, said in an email the department’s policy “has always been that Marriage Certificates or Certificates of Civil Unions which do not include a ‘new surname to be taken’ section are acceptable to change a client’s name to either one of the two spouse’s last names or a combination thereof, as listed on the certificate.”

'It's just wrong'

But that hasn't been the case at many DMV offices.

After DMV employees in Medford told her to return with her first marriage certificate, Springsteen-DeLuca got the certificate from Islip Town Hall. She went back to the DMV armed with that, her second marriage certificate, her first husband’s death certificate, her Social Security card and a utility bill in her hyphenated name.

Once again, she was turned away.

“It’s just wrong what they’re doing,” she said. She recalled that a DMV employee told her to have the town clerk type in "Springsteen" on her original marriage certificate as her new name.

“The law is the law, and we are not allowed to alter or change any original document,” Compitello said in an interview. “Don’t make people come back to town hall when they have the original marriage certificate; don’t send them all over.”

She noted that women seeking the REAL ID often already have a driver’s license with their new married name on it.

“They’re not accepting that as proof but [the new last name] was obviously accepted by them at one point to get a license,” Compitello said.

In response to Newsday’s query about the inconsistencies and DMV offices not accepting marriage certificates before 1986, O’Brien said in an email that the department is “sending additional reminders to our offices around the state to reiterate our policy.”

Compitello said she often has to console the women, especially widows.

“You have these crying women because their husband just died, and they don’t know what to do,” she said. “It’s hard enough for a widow to look at their marriage certificate, but then to be given a hard time about it? It’s just so sad."

Marriage ceremonies, part deux

Marie Little, president of the New York State Town Clerks Association, said that after hearing about this issue several months ago from clerks in different parts of the state, she too wrote to the DMV commissioner. 

“I have heard of people doing a subsequent marriage ceremony just to get an updated certificate,” she said. “If the spouse is no longer alive, it does become a major issue. Or if they’re divorced, obviously, that’s not going to happen.”

Some town clerks on Long Island confirmed they have performed more second marriage ceremonies in recent months just because of this issue. A second marriage license and ceremony will cost a couple $90, said Islip Town Clerk Linda Vavricka, who said women continue to show up at her office frustrated over the issue.

“The DMV puts it back on us and no one is trying to help,” Vavricka said. “Why is no one trying to come up with a solution?”

She and other town clerks say they have even called and written to local DMV offices to intervene in specific cases. They have urged DMV employees to accept the women's marriage certificates as proof of their name change.

Race for records

Hempstead Town Clerk Kate Murray called the situation a “bureaucratic quagmire” that is “definitely hurting older women disproportionately.”

Murray said as the deadline to get a REAL ID for travel approached, marriage records requests in her office also spiked, rising 71% in March and 110% in April over the same period in 2024.

As of the end of last month, approximately 76% of marriage record requests in the Town of Hempstead were for marriages prior to 1990, Murray said. Because the DMV sometimes gives people two to three hours to get the certificate without losing their appointment slot, she often has people “flying in” to her office, she said.

“We’ll put on our roller-skates and do our thing for folks, but this has definitely been an experience for us,” she said.

Several town clerks said they have been advising frantic residents to get a passport or passport card to satisfy the federal travel requirement. 

“I just think it’s crazy that you could get a passport to travel out of the country easier than you can get a New York State REAL ID,” Vavricka said.

Denise Anderson, 67, of Bethpage, said she prioritized getting a REAL ID because her daughter and family live in North Carolina and she wants to be able to fly out more easily in case of an emergency. She had to make two trips to Hempstead Town Hall and three appointments at a DMV office over five weeks before she was finally approved for a REAL ID two weeks ago.

“This has been so time-consuming for me and a big headache running back and forth,” said Anderson, who works as a personal care assistant. She said she spent hours trying to secure a DMV appointment online. “It’s just convoluted and there’s more red tape involved than there should be.”

Anderson, who was married in 1983 and took her husband’s last name, said there should be information added to the DMV's website about the marriage certificate issue.

Both she and Springsteen-DeLuca now have the new licenses.

“I feel this is a severe communication breakdown,” Anderson said. “If all of the DMVs are using the same guidelines, they should sit down with their employees and tell them they should accept marriage certificates from before 1986 . . . There’s no need for all of this frustration.”

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.