New York Democrats Demand ID To Shovel Snow But Not To Vote

While congressional Democrats rail against a voter verification bill they claim is “voter suppression,” their rising socialist star is demanding multiple forms of identification to shovel snow. 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani put a call out for help as a powerful snowstorm pummelled the Big Apple. His Sanitation Department is recruiting temporary workers to shovel out the city. 

Applicants can earn up to $28.71 per hour, but to get the gig they have to show some ID, Fox News reported. That includes two photos, two original forms of identification and copies, and their Social Security card. 

As SNL’s Church Lady said long ago, “Isn’t that special?” New York City’s Board of Elections doesn’t demand ID from most registered voters. There’s less scrutiny on who is voting in the city’s elections than who is shoveling its bus stops and sidewalks. 

‘The Irony Cannot be Understated’

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are doing everything they can to kill the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a vote. Americans need IDs to buy booze and cigarettes and rent a car and board a plane and collect welfare benefits, but asking would-be voters to show proof of eligibility is a bridge too far for Democrats. 

“The irony cannot be understated: New York Democrats are actively asking for IDs to shovel snow, but fighting in Congress to stop voter ID by insanely suggesting it’s “voter suppression,” Sonali Patel, Republican National Committee Rapid Response director, wrote Monday in a press release.  

Patel notes that all New York Democrats in the House voted against the measure, including Senate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others facing competitive races in this year’s midterm elections.  

Following House passage earlier this month on a mostly party-line vote, the SAVE America Act is now in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate. The majority faces an uphill battle between a 60-vote rule to end the filibuster and Democrat leadership asserting the bill is dead on arrival. Republicans have discussed ways to confront the challenges, including pushing a standing — or talking  — filibuster, which would require Senate Democrats to stay on the floor for days, perhaps weeks to tell Americans why they do not support legislation popular with the vast majority of Americans. Spoiler Alert: Democrats want noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. has said that the SAVE America Act will hit the Senate floor this week when members return from a storm-complicated weekend away. 

The bill aims to clean up the National Voter Registration Act, which lacks the solid voter verification provisions that election-integrity advocates have long sought. 

Overwhelming Support

New polling further cements widespread support for the election security safeguards in the bill. 

Heritage Action’s poll of voters in five states, including battlegrounds North Carolina and Georgia, found more than 70 percent of likely voters oppose non-citizens voting in U.S. elections. More than 80 percent of respondents say that every legal voter should have confidence that their ballot is counted equally and not diluted by ineligible voters. And nearly 80 percent support applying the same eligibility standard nationwide for federal elections. 

In Ohio, 68 percent of those surveyed support proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. Just 17 percent said noncitizens should be allowed to vote in federal elections. And 64 percent support removing noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. The numbers are similar in Alaska, Georgia, Maine, and North Carolina, where proof of citizenship garners 68 percent support and opposition to foreign nationals voting in U.S. elections tops 70 percent. 

Interestingly, 77 percent of Alaska voters oppose noncitizens voting in federal elections and overwhelmingly support the provisions in the SAVE America Act, even as the state’s RINO senator, Lisa Murkowski, says she won’t vote for the bill. 

Also interesting, the Heritage Action polls finds voters are roughly twice as likely to reward a senator for supporting the SAVE America Act as to punish them for doing so.

“American voters are smart, and they know that showing an ID to vote is a simple way to protect their ballots,” said Tiffany Justice, Heritage Action Executive Vice President. “Voting is a privilege of American citizenship, and it should be defended by commonsense measures that apply equally to all states. Allowing non-citizens to cancel out the votes of law-abiding Americans threatens the very foundation of our republic.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.