Huntington Beach’s Measure A allowing voter ID to be implemented in future elections is winning with voters; if it does pass, the city will next have to navigate how it will be implemented while likely warding off challenges hoping to stop it.
“Whatever we need to do to make sure it goes smoothly, we will move forward on,” said Councilmember Tony Strickland, a member of the council’s conservative majority that put the measure on Tuesday’s primary ballot.
The voter ID measure would be an update to Huntington Beach’s charter, saying the city “may” verify the eligibility of voters by requiring they show identification beginning in 2026 for all municipal elections. The state attorney general and secretary of state have pledged to take action “to ensure voters’ rights are protected,” but so far haven’t publicly pushed the issue since sending a letter last fall.
Measure A also says the city may provide at least 20 ADA-compliant in-person polling locations and monitor ballot drop boxes within the city.
“I know a lot of people that vote in person. And when they vote in person they don’t understand why you don’t show your ID,” Councilmember Casey McKeon said.
Even though the update that would be made to the city charter says “may,” Strickland said the city will move forward to implement it by 2026. But the details for what voter ID will look like in practice will have to be worked out by the City Council, they weren’t laid out in the measure put on Tuesday’s primary ballot.
More than 47,000 people voted in the election. As of Friday, March 8, 52% were in support – the OC Registrar of Voters is still processing more than 188,000 mailed-in, dropped-off and other ballots and has until April 5 to certify the results with the state.
Then, at some point, the city clerk will have to ask the registrar office if it’ll work with the city to add the identification requirement at local polling places.
But, Fred Smoller, a political science professor at Chapman University, doesn’t believe Huntington Beach will ever get the chance to implement voter ID.
“They’re on a train to nowhere,” Smoller said. “This ain’t going nowhere. It’s purely symbolic. No way the registrar is not going to do it.”
The county elections office doesn’t “need that headache” of helping the city implement voter ID, he said.
Huntington Beach contracts with the OC Registrar of Voters to run its elections, like it did this month. Bob Page, who leads the office, said it’s still premature to comment on the impact of Measure A.
“(The) City Charter Amendment Ordinance includes the word ‘may,’” Page wrote in an email. “As a result, if the measure passes, the City Council will have to determine how it wants to implement the new law.”
Smoller said he doesn’t think the city would choose to move away from using the Registrar because of how costly it would be to run elections on its own. And if the city does choose to, the state is going to use its authority to not let the city ask voters to show their ID at the polls, he said.
“Attorney General (Rob) Bonta will clamp down on it, because it’s not a state policy,” Smoller said. “I don’t know when, if it ever comes to that. I doubt it will.”
The only estimate so far from the city on the potential cost of running local elections came from its chief financial officer, Sunny Han, who told the City Council that her office estimated it’d cost $1.3 million to $1.65 million to hold an election, including one-time expenses for buying equipment and recurring costs.
The City Council, Strickland said, will work with City Attorney Michael Gates on how to approach the Registrar of Voters and what needs to be done to implement voter ID.
“I’m very confident that we are going to run a really great election with voter ID,” Strickland said.
The first election in which the city could have voter ID is in 2026, when the council’s conservative majority and city attorney are up for reelection.
State Sen. Dave Min in February filed a bill, SB 1174, in the legislature that would prohibit any city in California from asking voters to show ID at polls. Min, who’s running for congress, has spoken out against many of the city’s most contested policies in the past year. The bill hasn’t been voted on yet and is still in committee.
Mark Bixby, a resident who publishes the Surf City Sentinel Facebook page, has vowed to fight the city in court to stop voter ID’s implementation.
Bixby filed a lawsuit in November to stop the measure from appearing on voter’s ballots and challenging its legality. In response, an Orange County Superior Court judge said courts generally don’t do pre-election reviews of ballot contents and allowed it to proceed. If its implementation raises issues of constitutionality, then a judge could review it, the court ruled.
That lawsuit will have its next hearing in May. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern and Northern California chapters and Disability Rights California sent the a court brief for why they believed voter ID was unconstitutional.
“There is ample evidence throughout the country that voter ID laws impose severe burdens on voters, particularly on voters with disabilities and on Latine, Black, young, and low-income voters,” the organizations told the court. “In contrast, there is very little evidence of voter fraud, and the few examples that exist would not have been prevented by voter ID.”
The California Attorney General’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: Orange County Register
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