After dropping final month in Orange County Superior Court docket, the state of California is asking a state appellate court docket to overturn a Huntington Seaside measure that might require voters to current picture identification to solid ballots in native elections.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, the state’s prime elections official, have been tangling with Huntington Seaside in court docket for greater than a 12 months over Measure A, which amends the town constitution to say that native officers “may” require picture ID for municipal elections beginning in 2026.
In April, Orange County Superior Court docket Choose Nico Dourbetas mentioned the state had not proven that “a voter identification requirement compromises the integrity of a municipal election.” Huntington Seaside Mayor Pat Burns referred to as the ruling a “huge victory.”
Bonta appealed Wednesday to the 4th Appellate District, the place the state hopes for a extra favorable listening to. In February, a three-judge panel from the 4th District mentioned that Huntington Seaside’s assertion of a “constitutional right to regulate its own municipal elections free from state interference” was “problematic,” however kicked the case again right down to Orange County Superior Court docket.
Greater than 53% of Huntington Seaside voters supported the constitution modification within the March 2024 election.
The modification additionally requires that Huntington Seaside present 20 in-person polling locations and to observe poll drop packing containers. Town has not shared plans on how the legislation could possibly be applied in subsequent 12 months’s elections.
A consultant for Huntington Seaside didn’t reply to requests for remark Thursday. Town’s legal professionals have argued that the town constitution provides native officers autonomy to supervise municipal points, together with native elections.
Bonta and Weber contend that whereas California’s 121 “charter cities” can govern their very own municipal affairs, native legal guidelines can’t battle with state legal guidelines on problems with “statewide concern,” together with the integrity of California elections and the constitutional proper to vote.
The voter ID legislation is one in all a number of fronts within the ongoing battle that conservative officers in Huntington Seaside have waged in opposition to California because the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Town has used comparable arguments about its constitution metropolis standing in fights over state housing legal guidelines, training insurance policies for transgender college students and “sanctuary state” immigration legal guidelines.
The difficulty of voter ID has change into a flashpoint with conservative politicians, together with President Trump, who in January demanded that California enact a voter ID legislation so as to obtain help for the devastating Los Angeles space wildfires.
California voters are required to confirm their identities once they register to vote, and the state imposes prison penalties for fraudulent registration. California doesn’t require picture identification on the polls however does require that voters present their names and addresses.
