California can't stop the city of Huntington Beach from requiring voters to show ID to vote in city elections, an Orange County judge has ruled.
The ruling marks the second time Huntington Beach has prevailed in Orange County Superior Court against California Attorney General Rob Bonta's attempt to block city officials from requiring would-be voters to verify their identity before being allowed to cast ballots in city elections.
In the decision, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas denied Bonta's request for a so-called writ of mandate declaring Huntington Beach had violated state law and could not require voter ID.
Attorney General Rob Bonta
| Attorney General Rob Bonta Official website
Dourbetas said the state cannot override the city ordinance because Huntington Beach is a charter city, and under California's state constitution, the city has the authority to run its local elections under its own local ordinances, free of state interference, so long as it does not violate people's right to vote in those elections.
"... A voter identification requirement does not violate the right to vote," Dourbetas wrote in the decision. "There is no showing that a voter identification requirement compromises the integrity of a municipal election.
"Municipal election results do not lack integrity because only residents of a municipality who are eligible to vote participated in the election," the judge said.
Bonta had sued the city last spring, shortly after Huntington Beach voters had passed a ballot measure to require voters to show ID when voting in city elections.
That ballot measure, known as Measure 1, included language specifically stating that, in the event of a conflict between the city charter and California state election law, the charter would prevail under California's state constitution.
The voter ID requirement was set to take effect for the 2026 Huntington Beach city elections.
Opponents of Measure 1, mostly Democrats and those on the political left wing, including the ACLU of Southern California, had asserted Measure 1's provisions requiring voter ID and monitoring of vote drop boxes would result in voter suppression.
In the legal challenge against Measure 1, Bonta and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber asserted California law prohibits local governments, like Huntington Beach, from requiring voter ID, when state law forbids it.
Bonta said requiring voter ID would "disenfranchise voters at the polls."
After Huntington Beach voters approved Measure 1, California's Democratic state legislative supermajority passed a new law, known as SB 1174, specifically forbidding local governments from using their constitutional charters to require voter ID in local elections.
Bonta has argued SB 1174 didn't change California law, but only "reinforces" existing restrictions against voter ID requirements in the state.
Huntington Beach is a majority Republican city. Current voter registration figures show 56.5 percent of city voters are registered Republicans.
Last year, Judge Dourbetas also sided with the city, finding Bonta's challenge was premature and that Measure 1 didn't conflict with state law.
He gave the state the chance to amend their suit and try to remedy the shortfalls the judge had identified in their case.
Dourbetas' latest ruling addressed Bonta's amended petition.
In response to the latest ruling, Bonta pledged to appeal.
“Yet again, we believe the Orange County Superior Court got it wrong,” Bonta said in a prepared statement. “Earlier this year, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal wrote that Huntington Beach’s argument that ‘it had a constitutional right to regulate its own municipal elections free from state interference . . . is . . . problematic.’ We agree. Now that we have a final order from the Orange County Superior Court, we look forward to moving on and appealing the decision. We remain confident that Measure A will ultimately be struck down.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns, however, praised the decision, calling the ruling a "huge victory not only for our City but charter cities throughout the State."
In a statement posted to social media platform X, Burns said: "... We have not only successfully defended our City's Voter ID law, but also the constitutional authority of charter cities rights from attacks by the Attorney General and the state of California. We will not back down in our efforts to secure local control over our local issues and will continue to fight for the City."
In that X post, Huntington Beach city attorney Mike Vigliotta noted "the US Supreme Court has already determined that voter ID does not violate the right to vote."
He also said city officials "aniicipate this fight isn't over," and said they were "pleased with the Court's fair and just evaluation" of the case.