• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Some politicians claim that Olive Garden monitors its promotions better than some states do its elections.

President Trump recently gave a speech which  exaggerated claims about election vulnerabilities to pressure the Senate to push through a voting restriction bill.  About the same time, Olive Garden brought back its popular Never-Ending Pasta Pass, which requires customers show a photo ID to use it.

“Over the past few days, a clarification from Olive Garden about guests providing ID to use their Never-Ending Pasta Pass has become a flashpoint for prominent conservatives,” according to Fast Company. “Several have seized on the comic possibilities of boasting that the preeminent fast-casual Italian chain is more vigilant about fraud than Democrats. ‘It shouldn’t be harder to get a mid fettuccine alfredo,’ the argument goes, ‘than it is to vote in the midterms.’”

Thanks to social media, these two separate, seemingly unrelated events became intertwined, as Republicans spun up a “buzzy but misleading talking point claiming that Olive Garden polices its bottomless pasta deal more tightly than the United States does its elections,” according to The New York Times. “The claim misrepresents both voter ID laws and the multibillion-dollar casual dining chain’s rules surrounding unlimited breadsticks and limitless spaghetti. But it has nevertheless circulated wildly online, at the Capitol and at the White House, in the latest example of a corroded political discourse that often trivializes the weightiest topics, like comparing voting rights to fettuccine.”

Olive Garden’s passes allow the 10,000 Americans who purchase one 13 weeks of unlimited pasta for $100. Given those economics, a social media user asked the chain whether families could share a pasta pass. The answer was no — passes can only be used by the individual who buys one.

“Nowadays, if you want to go to Olive Garden and get unlimited pasta, you’ve got to show a picture ID,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) said Tuesday, according to The Washington Post. “This isn’t complicated stuff.” 

Other Republicans, including Reps. David Kustoff (Tennessee) and Virginia Foxx (North Carolina), also have cited the Olive Garden talking point this week. At issue is the requirements in the SAVE America Act, which Democrats have blocked in the Senate.

Democrats have started to push back on this talking point, according to The Hill. 

“It is not a lunch special. You have a constitutional right to vote; you don’t have a constitutional right to a breadstick or a bowl of pasta,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).