Fun:RationalWiki Eligibility Controversy

Various candidates for the RationalWiki Foundation elections claim to be over 18 years old. However, requests, including lawsuits, asking they make their official registration certificate public have gone unanswered.

The RationalWiki Guide for 2010 board of trustees election Article I, Section 1 is quoted as requiring the following for any persons to be eligible to be a board member for the RationalWiki Foundation:

Must be 18 years of age or older. Thus, according the guide, for all persons who are under 18, even if they are US citizens, they are prohibited from legitimately becoming a board member.

In total, there are at least 6 lawsuits in the effort to compel potential board members to prove their birthdate and edit count. The lawsuits include those by various wingnuts who obviously just dislike the candidates because of their race or policies.

Various campaigns released a "Certification of Live Birth", claiming this is proof of the candidates' birthdates. However, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, an official government agency of the State of Hawaii rejects this document as proof of Hawaiian birth. They require instead a "Certificate of Live Birth" (1st word different). The department states: In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL.

Bloggers note that the "Certification of Live Birth" records details about race which are completely irrelevant to the campaign and that the document contains the word "LASER" in the lower left hand corner identifying the form type. They claim both words are incompatible with a document generated in the alleged years of birth. They also note the certification number is blacked out.