Huntington Beach is facing its third lawsuit with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who announced Monday afternoon he’d be suing the city over for moving forward with voter ID laws following the March primary election.
“The right to freely cast your vote is the foundation of our democracy and Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy flies in the face of this principle,” Bonta wrote in an emailed statement on Monday. “We’re asking the court to block Huntington Beach’s unlawful step toward suppressing or disenfranchising voters.”
City Attorney Michael Gates fired back in a statement to Voice of OC, saying the state Constitution gives them the power to implement voter ID.
“The people of Huntington Beach have made their voices clear on this issue and the people’s decision on the March 5th ballot measures for election integrity is final,” Gates said. “To that end, the City will vigorously uphold and defend the will of the people.”
Surf City voters just approved the city’s new voter ID requirements last month, which will allow the city to require voters to show a government issued ID at any of the city’s voting locations, along with allowing for security cameras to monitor ballot drop boxes.
The law will not impact those who vote remotely.
[Read: Voter IDs, Noncitizen Voting: Two Orange County Cities Fuel Opposing Debates on Voting]
That ballot measure passed with 53% of the vote, earning just under 33,000 votes in a city where a little more than 132,000 residents are registered to vote.
While Bonta threatened to sue over the proposed ballot measure last September if it was approved, he wasn’t able to stop it from making it on the ballot.
[Read: California Attorney General Warns Huntington Beach Against Implementing Voter ID Law]
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s chief authority on elections, also approved of the lawsuit in the same statement.
“This voter ID measure conflicts with state law,” Weber said. “Not only is it a solution in search of a problem, laws like these are harmful to California voters.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark declined to comment, referring questions to Gates.
State Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine) has also criticized city leaders for moving forward with the voter ID laws, and put forward a bill in the senate to ban the practice.
Gates also referenced that bill in his statement, saying that Bonta’s lawsuit and Min’s proposed bill seemed to be competing with each other.
“That blatant inconsistency speaks volumes,” Gates said.
The new suit represents the third ongoing lawsuit between Bonta and Surf City leaders, who’ve engaged in a series of legal battles across both the state and federal courts over how much control the state government should have over the city.
Most of those fights have centered around state housing mandates, with a San Diego Superior Court judge ruling last month that Huntington Beach would be unable to approve any new housing developments without meeting the state’s requirements until the case was resolved.
[Read: Huntington Beach Barred From Approving Any New Housing Developments]
The city is also fighting the housing laws in federal court, but that case is currently still being reviewed.
[Read: Huntington Beach Reignites Fight Against State Housing Law]
The city is also mixed up in fights with several state agencies over the annual Pacific Airshow, which state regulators say violated the law by not doing enough to protect the environment or get the proper permits to perform.
[Read: State Agencies Say Pacific Airshow in HB Illegitimately Privatized the Coastline]
It remains unclear just how much these lawsuits could end up costing the city, but city staff have warned in the past that penalties from state regulators could easily reach millions in a city that’s already grappling with a tight budget.
[Read: How Much Could Surf City’s Housing Fight Cost Taxpayers?]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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