Photo: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 27: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani holds up bananas as he speaks at a food distribution center on July 27, 2026 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Mamdani announced that the five upcoming city-owned grocery stores will offer a 30 percent discount on produce, meat, bread, and milk when they begin to open next year. The discount on essential items will potentially save shoppers an estimated $90 a month, or roughly $1,000 a year, as prices for food and other items continue to rise throughout the country. The mayor has pledged one community grocery store for each borough. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has become the latest Democrat to accidentally undermine liberal arguments against Voter ID amid the rollout of his city-run grocery stores.
During a recent press conference, a reporter asked Mamdani how he plans to ensure that people don’t take advantage of the stores, which will use government funds to provide groceries at a 30 percent discount. Skeptics have pointed out that anyone could simply purchase mass quantities of the taxpayer-subsidized goods and then sell them at a markup while still undercutting privately run grocery stores. Mamdani turned the question over to the city’s chief financial officer, Jeanny Pak.
“We are looking to make sure that we target New Yorkers, whether it be a sort of a library card-esque thing, and also we manage who’s buying and that is focused on everyday New Yorkers,” Pak said.
Yes, you read that right. The socialist mayor who has been a vocal proponent against requiring an ID to vote is now apparently planning to require a “library card-esque thing” – otherwise known as an ID – to enter his government-run grocery stores. Why? To ensure that non-New Yorkers can’t access something that is reserved for city residents.
The irony was apparently lost on the mayor’s staff, who scrambled to respond to the predictable mockery online. “Comparisons to voter ID laws or the SAVE Act simply do not apply,” a Mamdani spokesperson said in defense of the policy. “This is not an identification system, nor is it a mechanism to verify who someone is, where they live, or how much they earn.”
But wait – if it’s not a mechanism to identify where someone lives, then how will it ensure that only New Yorkers can access the discounted pricing? It seems that no one from the mayor’s office has an answer.
“ID for government cheese,” quipped Philadelphia radio host Rich Zeoli. “After all, we have to make sure no one crosses the border and if they do, the police will be called. So it’s good to see Mamdani now supports ID (just not for voting), border control, and law enforcement.”
Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a vocal supporter of Voter ID, added to the pile-on. “So, let me get this straight: Taxpayer-funded grocery store? Better show a valid ID or you can’t buy milk,” he said. “Voting for the people who decide how those taxes get spent? A valid ID is somehow ‘racist’ and ‘oppressive.’ Unbelievable.”
This isn’t the first time that Mamdani has made himself the laughingstock of the internet over his absurdly hypocritical stance on requiring people to show an ID. When a massive winter storm hit the Big Apple back in February, Mamdani requested that New Yorkers sign up to become emergency snow shovelers.
The only catch? Interested parties had to show no less than five forms of ID to participate in the program.
“The New York City Sanitation Department website says that in order to register as an emergency snow shoveler, an applicant must provide two small photos sized 1-1.5 square inches, two original forms of ID plus copies, and their social security card,” The New York Post reported at the time.
But while Mamdani is the current face of Democrat duplicity on ID policies, he’s hardly the only one. Even as Democrats railed against Voter ID in 2024, the party required a photo ID to attend the DNC convention that year. Multiple Democrats, including Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have also required attendees at their campaign events to show a government-issued photo ID for entry even as they oppose requiring an ID to vote in federal elections.
When it comes to voting, Democrats insist that ID requirements are “racist,” discriminatory against poor people and married women, and “Jim Crow 2.0.” But when it comes to attending a political rally, shoveling snow, or buying bananas from a communist grocery store, apparently, requiring an ID is perfectly acceptable.
Of course, there’s also the fact that Americans have to show a government-issued photo ID to board a plane, rent a car, rent a hotel room, purchase alcohol or tobacco, pick up most prescriptions, donate blood, open a bank account, and even to participate in Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Pass.
Liberals will counter that “voting is a constitutional right,” while all those other things are not. True enough. But just because something is a right does not mean that there should be no safeguards or restrictions to ensure that right is exercised lawfully and only by those to whom it is granted.
For instance, Americans have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms (although even that varies in practice depending on the state). Yet the federal government still requires a photo ID for gun purchases – in addition to requiring buyers to fill out a federal document (ATF Form 4473) with exact personal details.
Abandoning basic election integrity provisions like Voter ID actually infringes on the free exercise of the right to vote. Every illegitimate voter effectively disenfranchises one lawful U.S. citizen voter.
Mamdani and his fellow Democrats clearly understand that identification is a basic safeguard whenever it suits them. It is only when Americans cast ballots – and Democrats stand to benefit from weaker rules – that asking someone to prove who they are suddenly becomes an intolerable assault on civil rights. Their position is not principled, coherent, or even remotely believable. It is a cynical double standard dressed up as moral outrage, and Mamdani has once again exposed it as well as any Republican ever could.
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