Well, assuming that the person was not an idiot, it's plausible that she didn't have the correct documents (per the new law) with her the first time. But, she was, or should have been, told what she needed, and presumably did bring them the second time. So, there's still the question about why two more times, no?
Having been a government bureaucrat in my life, and having some dealings with identity issues on both sides, it is not beyond the realm of plausibility that (1) the law didn't really consider all the types of legit name change (2) the rules based on the laws didn't consider these,or even had unreasonable requirements and (3) the staff in question didn't have proper training and (4) the staff were just jerks anyway and didn't look up the rules. Or all of the above.
Right after 9/11 was stopped at an airport security point and refused entry because my Wisconsin driver's licence with current picture, only had a sticker with the expiration date, not an entry in the laminated licence. Now, that's what the state had done to save money on renewals, but no luck. Fortunately, there was an intelligent supervisor: I had plenty of ID showing I was me, but I needed a government ID with nonexpired date and picture. In fact, I got on the plane because, in addition to lots of ID, I also had a county (government) bus pass, with expiration date and picture. Nobody checked the current status of state IDs when the rules were made, but there was intelligence on the ground. These things can be handled. Consider the royal FUBAR when the passport rules changed--the law made sense, but the passport people didn't do much to deal with the obviously predictable increase in passport applications, or the increased hassle which again was predictable. (And having been in FL a lot, I agree there are a lot of annoying old people, but I have observed in my life that there are a lot of annoying people in general, and not just in Florida, btw).
Re: Thought that was standard
Having been a government bureaucrat in my life, and having some dealings with identity issues on both sides, it is not beyond the realm of plausibility that (1) the law didn't really consider all the types of legit name change (2) the rules based on the laws didn't consider these,or even had unreasonable requirements and (3) the staff in question didn't have proper training and (4) the staff were just jerks anyway and didn't look up the rules. Or all of the above.
Right after 9/11 was stopped at an airport security point and refused entry because my Wisconsin driver's licence with current picture, only had a sticker with the expiration date, not an entry in the laminated licence. Now, that's what the state had done to save money on renewals, but no luck. Fortunately, there was an intelligent supervisor: I had plenty of ID showing I was me, but I needed a government ID with nonexpired date and picture. In fact, I got on the plane because, in addition to lots of ID, I also had a county (government) bus pass, with expiration date and picture.
Nobody checked the current status of state IDs when the rules were made, but there was intelligence on the ground. These things can be handled.
Consider the royal FUBAR when the passport rules changed--the law made sense, but the passport people didn't do much to deal with the obviously predictable increase in passport applications, or the increased hassle which again was predictable.
(And having been in FL a lot, I agree there are a lot of annoying old people, but I have observed in my life that there are a lot of annoying people in general, and not just in Florida, btw).