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California Attorney General Rob Bonta is not fighting an OC Superior Court Judge’s ruling that he brought a lawsuit too early against Huntington Beach’s voter ID requirements – instead the state’s top prosecutor is pushing to take the case to the court of appeals.
“Today, we are announcing our intention to appeal the Orange County Superior Court’s decision holding that it is too early to bring our lawsuit,” Bonta said in a statement on Thursday morning.
“With preparations for the 2026 elections beginning late next year, we want and need a state appellate court to weigh in expeditiously,” he continued. “When that happens, we are confident that we will prevail.”
The lawsuit is focused on a charter amendment dubbed Measure A that Surf City voters approved in March, which opens the doors for city leaders to require IDs during in-person voting, but would still allow for mail-in ballots to function normally.
[Read: Is Huntington Beach About to Introduce Voter ID?]
Bonta’s statement comes after OC Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas ruled last month the city’s law was not “ripe for adjudication” yet, noting city leaders hadn’t yet figured out how they would actually implement voter ID requirements at the ballot box.
To read the whole order, click here.
The judge gave Bonta 20 days to file an amended lawsuit, but Bonta declined the offer and instead submitted a filing to the judge that says they “disagree with the court’s November 15, 2024 order and seek an appealable judgment as soon as possible.”
[Read: OC Superior Court Judge Lets Huntington Beach Voter ID Requirements Stand]
Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber threatened to sue the city over voter ID laws before they were ever adopted, and continue to argue the rules are an unconstitutional infringement on voters’ rights.
“Measure A is a solution in search of a problem. In California, we champion people’s voices, we do not suppress them. We encourage participation in our democracy, we do not burden it,” Weber said in a joint statement with Bonta on Thursday. “We will continue to challenge the city’s action which violates state law.”
Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting that prosecutors had reached out to him about the push to move to a higher court, but in a Wednesday interview said he hadn’t decided if he’d go along with it.
“It seems like the state’s essentially willing to go along with the case to dismiss,” Gates said. “It’s pretty clear at the moment the city prevailed in this first round of legal battles.”
The city has yet to announce a plan on how they would implement voter ID, and Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page, who administers every election in the county, said he had yet to meet with city leaders on the issue.
“I would have a lot of questions before I could really answer that,” Page said when asked if the registrar could implement voter ID. “I haven’t talked to them to understand what they have in mind …my number one concern at that point is trying to combat voter confusion.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
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