{"id":69618,"date":"2026-03-21T07:55:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/connecticut-dems-demand-ids-to-recycle-cans-but-reject-gop-efforts-to-verify-citizenship-at-polls\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:55:56","slug":"connecticut-dems-demand-ids-to-recycle-cans-but-reject-gop-efforts-to-verify-citizenship-at-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/connecticut-dems-demand-ids-to-recycle-cans-but-reject-gop-efforts-to-verify-citizenship-at-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Dems demand IDs to recycle cans but reject GOP efforts to verify citizenship at polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Connecticut Democrats recently rushed through an emergency anti-fraud law requiring bottle redemption centers to collect a copy of a person\u2019s driver\u2019s license when they cash in more than 1,000 cans or bottles in a day \u2014 a document demand that Republicans say undercuts the party\u2019s attacks on voter-ID rules.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, an emergency certification bill, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cga.ct.gov\/2026\/BA\/PDF\/2026SB-00299-R00-BA.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SB 299,<\/a> was introduced by top <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/democratic-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democratic leaders<\/a> in the state&#8217;s legislature. It was later passed in both chambers in late February and was signed by Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, on March 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It requires people wishing to recycle cans for money to present a copy of their driver&#8217;s license, put in place because the state has had issues with non-residents crossing their border to take advantage of it&#8217;s higher return rate of 10 cents a can instead of five cents. The issue was reportedly causing the state to lose significant revenue.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the state still does not require its residents to present a driver&#8217;s license, or some other form of formal identification. Instead, residents wishing to vote simply have to attest, under penalty of the law, that they are a citizen of the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, both of Connecticut&#8217;s senators, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., recently voted against advancing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-calls-mail-in-voting-corrupt-senate-begins-debate-save-act-requiring-voter-id\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the SAVE Act<\/a> earlier this week, which Republicans introduced to pass stricter photo-ID requirements for voting in federal elections, including a national proof-of-citizenship requirement for anyone wishing to register to vote.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/only-fox-pence-urges-senate-restore-confidence-nationwide-voter-id-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>PENCE URGES SENATE TO \u2018RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE\u2019 WITH NATIONWIDE VOTER ID LAW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In Connecticut, it seems that they are committed to securing recycling, but not to securing elections,&#8221; said Anna Pingel, America First Policy Institute&#8217;s Campaign Director for Secure Elections. &#8220;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\u2014bottles or ballots?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital reached out to Blumenthal, Murphy and Lamont for comment but only heard back from Blumenthal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let\u2019s 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,&#8221; Blumenthal told Fox News Digital. &#8220;This is not a voter identification bill. It is a voter purge bill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/stephen-a-smith-stunned-after-rep-kevin-kiley-educates-california-voter-id-ban\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>STEPHEN A SMITH STUNNED AFTER REP KEVIN KILEY EDUCATES HIM ON CALIFORNIA VOTER ID BAN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, the Senate voted 51-48 to begin a debate on the House-passed SAVE Act vehicle, S. 1383. Blumenthal and Murphy both voted \u2018Nay.\u2019 The House had already passed the bill 218-213 on Feb. 11, but the measure still faces the Senate\u2019s 60-vote hurdle to advance toward passage \u2014 a threshold Democrats have said they intend to block.<\/p>\n<p>In speeches on the Senate floor trying to downplay the seriousness and scope of illegal citizen voting, Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/chuck-schumer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Chuck Schumer<\/u><\/a>, D-N.Y., and Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/raphael-warnock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>Raphael Warnock,<\/u><\/a> D-Ga., tacitly acknowledged the existence of a problem they&#8217;ve argued is immaterial: that illegal immigrants may be able to unlawfully participate in federal elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The evidence is that almost no illegal aliens vote,&#8221; Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. Warnock similarly acknowledged the issue while listing statistics about voting records in his home state. &#8220;8.2 million people are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/elections\/voter-fraud-concerns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>registered to vote<\/u><\/a> in Georgia. The Republican Secretary of State found 20 instances of non-citizens who were registered, and only nine had ever attempted to vote,&#8221; Warnock said.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats have fiercely opposed the Republican-led bill, citing concerns that its voter integrity measures are overly heavy-handed and could inadvertently burden communities that may struggle to provide documented proof of citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans, who argue that lax identity requirements may have already allowed an unknown number of non-citizens onto voter rolls, have launched a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/republicans-signal-no-retreat-save-act-marathon-senate-debate-kicks-off\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>marathon standoff over the bill<\/u><\/a> on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate will be holding weekend sessions as the deadlock continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Connecticut Democrats recently rushed through an emergency anti-fraud law requiring bottle redemption centers to collect a copy of a person\u2019s driver\u2019s license when they cash in more than 1,000 cans or bottles in a day \u2014 a document demand that Republicans say undercuts the party\u2019s attacks on voter-ID rules. Earlier this month, an emergency certification &#8230; <a title=\"Connecticut Dems demand IDs to recycle cans but reject GOP efforts to verify citizenship at polls\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/21\/connecticut-dems-demand-ids-to-recycle-cans-but-reject-gop-efforts-to-verify-citizenship-at-polls\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Connecticut Dems demand IDs to recycle cans but reject GOP efforts to verify citizenship at polls\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}