The divisor class group of a hyperelliptic curve defined over a finite field is a finite abelian group at the center of a number of important open questions in algebraic geometry, number theory and cryptography. Many of these problems lend themselves to numerical investigation, and as emphasized by Sutherland [14, 13], fast arithmetic in the divisor class group is crucial for their efficiency. Besides, implementations of these fundamental operations are at the core of the algebraic geometry packages of widely-used computer algebra systems such as Magma and Sage.