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Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

A California judge rejected the state’s attempts to shut down a conservative coastal city’s voter ID law April 7, ruling the city did not violate state elections law when voters passed the provision last year.

In his ruling early Monday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas denied a request by California Attorney General Rob Bonta to invalidate Huntington Beach’s charter amendment, passed in March 2024.

“There is no showing that a voter identification requirement compromises the integrity of a municipal election,” Dourbetas wrote in his decision Monday. “Municipal election results do not lack integrity because only residents of a municipality who are eligible to vote participated in the election.”

The judge also found the city’s charter amendment does not violate the right to vote and does not reduce the integrity of the electoral process.

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates celebrated the ruling.

Bonta filed the lawsuit on behalf of Secretary of State Shirley Weber in April 2024, alleging the voter ID law violated state election law. The original lawsuit was thrown out in November by Dourbetas, who ruled the state did not provide sufficient evidence.

The state appealed in January. The state’s Fourth Appellate District reversed the judge’s decision, saying the court’s “conclusion that this matter is not ripe for decision is problematic.”

The ruling sent the matter back to the judge.

Bonta and Weber also filed for a writ of mandate in February, asking the court to resolve the lawsuit on its merits instead of waiting for the appeal ruling, which was the case decided Monday.

Bonta and Weber also plan to appeal the latest ruling.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta attends a press conference in Los Angeles on April 15, 2024. Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber plan to appeal the April 7, 2025, ruling. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Weber alleged the city’s law will exclude voters.

The local voter ID law is one of many that have cropped up across the United States in recent years. Most recently, a referendum was approved in Wisconsin on April 1 to add a voter ID requirement to the state’s constitution, solidifying a rule in place since 2011.

Thirty-six other states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Bills to clarify that only U.S. citizens may vote are pending in 12 states this year, the organization also reported.

President Donald Trump also signed an executive order March 25 to overhaul election rules on voter registration requirements, election law enforcement, electronic voting system security, voting deadlines, and foreign interference in elections.