This California city passed a voter ID law. Now the attorney general is suing to block it

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking the City of Huntington Beach to court, after voters there last month passed a charter amendment requiring voter ID in local elections.

Bonta appeared with California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday to announce the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court, eight months after his office sent Huntington Beach a warning that the then-proposed measure — which passed on March 5 with 53% of the vote — was in direct violation of California law.

At the press conference, Bonta accused Huntington Beach of repeatedly defying the law, whether it comes to housing edicts or voter eligibility. Last year, Bonta’s office sued Huntington Beach over its failure to comply with state affordable housing laws.

“The City of Huntington Beach has repeatedly violated the law, they are not law-abiding. They have intentionally violated the law, they have willfully violated the law, they have brazenly violated the law, when they have lost in court they have continued to violate the law,” Bonta said.

He added that that the conservative-controlled city council “know exactly what they’re doing, they’re doing it anyway.”

The attorney general said that his office is seeking invalidation of the city charter amendment, calling it a “fairly straightforward issue of law.”

Both Bonta and Weber said that there is no evidence that voter fraud is a problem, either in California or nationwide.

“It is really a solution looking for a problem, because we have not found this problem,” Weber said of the Huntington Beach charter amendment.

Weber said that the Huntington Beach City Council, which sent the measure to voters, gave “false hope” to voters that they can take away the voting rights of others.

Reached for comment, Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said that the attorney general’s statement that the city’s voter ID law violates state law “is inconsistent with, in fact in direct conflict with, Sen. David Min’s new bill attempting to make Huntington Beach’s voter ID illegal. That blatant inconsistency speaks volumes.”

Gates said that the California Constitution provides the city with the authority to enact the charter amendment.

“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. To that end, the city will vigorously uphold and defend the will of the people,” he said.