Huntington Beach residents might not see voter ID at their local polls after the California Supreme Court declined to hear the city’s arguments on why it should be allowed. 

Wednesday’s denial came after an appeals court ruled the city could not move forward with requiring voters to show their ID if they voted in person, saying it wasn’t up to the city to decide that but state legislators. 

[Read: Huntington Beach’s Voter ID Law Struck Down by State Appeals Court]

“In recent years, a vigorous nationwide debate has arisen over whether voters should be required to present identification at the polls to vote,” the appeals court judges wrote in their November decision. “We are not called upon to resolve this debate.” 

“Instead, this case presents us a much narrower, simpler question: is voter identification a matter of ‘integrity of the electoral process,’ which our Supreme Court has held is a matter of nationwide concern,” they continued. “We conclude it is.” 

City leaders pushed forward with developing a plan for voter ID after voters approved it in March 2024, but they’ve never used it for any elections due to legal challenges from the state Attorney General’s office and resident Mark Bixby, a frequent critic of the Republican city council. 

While the trial court initially said it was too early to rule on whether or not Huntington Beach’s proposed voter ID plan would violate the law in November 2024, that ruling was later overturned by an appellate court in February 2025, which ultimately said they could not move forward with any voter ID plans. 

Bixby praised the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case in a Wednesday statement, calling it a “huge waste of taxpayer money.” 

“The City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to put this on a special election ballot just to boost Tony Strickland’s State Senate campaign and Michael Gates’s efforts for an appointment in a Trump Administration, and has spent unknown hundreds of thousands in defending this pointless law,” Bixby wrote. “It’s time for the Huntington Beach City Council to stop with its MAGA politics of division and do some good for the people of Huntington Beach.”

Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon. 

It’s the latest loss in a series of failed lawsuits city leaders have filed against the state, arguing that as a charter city they have a right to more local control – especially when it comes to housing mandates.

[Read: Huntington Beach Continues to Lose Lawsuits Arguing Charter City Rights]

It’s an argument the city has struggled to win in court, with losses on a series of lawsuits around voter ID, control of local zoning and immigration, with most judges telling them their charter city status does not exempt them from state law.

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.