Huntington Beach officials are heading back to the state appellate court to defend the city’s voter ID law for a second time.
On Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a new motion asking the court to step in and block the law from moving forward.
It comes after OC Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas ruled Surf City could move forward with requiring an ID local elections so long as the elections did not interfere with state and federal elections.
[Read: OC Judge Greenlights Huntington Beach Voter ID Rules for Local Elections]
The rules would also only impact in-person voting, with voters still allowed to vote from home using their mail-in ballots sent out by the OC Registrar of Voters every election.
Bonta has repeatedly brought up concerns with the law since it was approved by Huntington Beach voters during the primary election last year, saying the voting system is already secure and the city’s efforts are undermining voter integrity.
“Secretary of State Weber and I continue to believe that the Orange County Superior Court got it wrong,” Bonta wrote in a Wednesday statement. “Our elections are already secure, and applicants who register to vote in California are already required to verify their identity during the registration process and at the polls.”
Huntington Beach leaders declined to comment for this article, but in the past have vowed they would continue appealing the case if necessary.
It’s not the first time the case has gone before the appeals court.
Originally, Dourbetas ruled it was too early to judge whether Huntington Beach’s voter ID laws were inappropriate.
But a state appeals court overruled him in February, instructing Dourbetas to make a ruling on the case.
[Read: State Appellate Court Says Huntington Beach Voter ID Lawsuit Can Continue]
The judges also questioned Huntington Beach’s argument that they have the power to make their own decisions about their elections as a charter city, calling it “problematic.”
[Read: Will Huntington Beach’s Legal Argument of Limited Independence Hold up in Court?]
“Municipal elections, including those in the City, are typically held in conjunction with statewide elections, and involve the same ballot, personnel, infrastructure, polling places, and voter registration,” the judges wrote. “Consolidation with the statewide elections takes the City’s municipal elections outside the home rule doctrine.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.