Connecticut Democrats signed a law this month requiring residents to show a driver’s license to cash in more than 1,000 bottles or cans at a redemption center. Voting in a federal election? No ID required.
Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 299 on March 3. The emergency measure was fast-tracked through both chambers in late February after the state lost significant revenue from out-of-state residents exploiting Connecticut’s 10-cent bottle return rate, double the five cents offered in neighboring states. To stop the cash drain, Democrats decided photo ID was not only acceptable but urgently necessary.
Voters, however, are handled differently. Connecticut residents who show up to cast a ballot simply attest under penalty of law that they are U.S. citizens. No driver’s license. No passport. No formal verification of any kind.
The contrast was not lost on election integrity advocates.
“In Connecticut, it seems that they are committed to securing recycling, but not to securing elections,” said Anna Pingel, Campaign Director for Secure Elections at the America First Policy Institute. “Requiring photo ID to collect cash from recycling but opposing photo ID to cast a vote tells you everything you need to know about the hypocrisy of politicians fighting against commonsense legislation like the SAVE Act. What is more important to safeguard: bottles or ballots?”
Both of Connecticut’s U.S. senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, voted this week against advancing the SAVE Act, a Republican-led bill that would require photo ID to register to vote in federal elections and mandate proof of citizenship for new voter registrations. The Senate voted 51-48 on Tuesday to begin debate on the measure, but the bill still faces the 60-vote threshold Democrats have pledged to hold.
The House passed the SAVE Act 218-213 on Feb. 11.
Blumenthal defended his vote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Let’s be very clear: the SAVE America Act requires a birth certificate or passport to register to vote, which Republicans know 21 million Americans do not have,” he said. “This is not a voter identification bill. It is a voter purge bill.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also spoke against the bill on the Senate floor. Both acknowledged, in the process of arguing the problem is minimal, that non-citizens can end up on voter rolls.
“The evidence is that almost no illegal aliens vote,” Schumer said.
Warnock cited figures from Georgia: 8.2 million registered voters, 20 non-citizens found on the rolls by the Republican Secretary of State, nine of whom had attempted to vote.
Republicans note the precise number of unauthorized registrations nationally is unknown, since no federal requirement currently exists to verify citizenship at registration. That is the gap the SAVE Act is designed to close.
The Senate has moved into weekend sessions as the standoff over the bill continues.
