Huntington Beach is starting to talk specifics of what it would take to implement voter identification requirements in city elections beginning next year.
The City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 2, directed staff to come back with a cost estimate and ordinance for implementing voter-approved Measure A, which called for allowing Huntington Beach to start asking voters for ID when voting in person in future city elections.
Measure A, which won support from 53.4% of voters in 2024, also says Huntington Beach must provide more in-person voting locations and begin city monitoring of ballot drop boxes.
All that comes with a cost, and city staffers also got approval from the council to look at hiring an election consultant to figure out how to implement voter ID and the rest of Measure A.
The ordinance city staff will come back with should offer more specifics for how the city actually wants to enforce the voter-approved law. Many specifics are still unclear.
City Manager Travis Hopkins noted that the city is about a year away from its next scheduled city election.
It’s also still unclear how a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general’s office and Secretary of State Shirley Weber might stop voter ID from being implemented.
The state attorney general’s office first sued in April of 2024. It has warned that planning for the 2026 elections could be disrupted should the case not be swiftly resolved.
An Orange County judge in April rejected arguments that the city’s plan would disenfranchise voters in future elections and the state attorney general’s office quickly appealed the ruling.
The city is due to issue its reply brief this month.
State lawmakers went so far as to pass a new law last year to strengthen the argument that voter ID isn’t allowed in California, but city attorneys have said that the law doesn’t apply to Huntington Beach.