(CN) - The California Court of Appeals found on Monday that a Huntington Beach law requiring voters present photo identification before casting ballots in city elections violates California state law.

The Voter ID law passed narrowly in 2024 via ballot initiative but is preempted by a state law - passed shortly thereafter -barring cities from implementing such laws, a three-judge panel said in their 15-page ruling.

"The state must strike a careful balance between, on the one hand, ensuring that only eligible voters are able to vote in elections while, on the other hand, not discouraging or preventing disadvantaged voters and communities from participating in the political process," the panel said. "Permitting the city to make its own rules, in violation of the state Elections Code, would upset the state's delicate balance and could impugn the integrity of the city's elections."

"All along, Secretary of State Weber and I have maintained that Huntington Beach's voter ID policy is unlawful," said State Attorney General Rob Bonta in a written statement. "No city in our state, charter and non-charter alike, can make it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots."

Two lawsuits were filed against the seaside city shortly after the passage of Measure A: one by Huntington Beach resident Mark Bixby, and the other by Bonta, on behalf of the state.

A spokesman for Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Vigliotta said in an email: "The city is reviewing the appellate court's decision and evaluating next steps."

The issue was batted back and forth between the trial court and the appellate court a number of times, with Orange County Superior Court Judge Nico Dourbetas finding previously that the "the challenged charter provision does not violate the right to vote and does not implicate the integrity of the electoral process." 

Dourbetas also found that the voter ID law, which applied only to municipal elections, was not a matter a statewide concern, citing a 2014 appellate court ruling.

But the appeals panel said Monday that Dourbetas interpretation of the 2014 ruling was "erroneous."

"Electoral integrity at the municipal level is a statewide concern reaching beyond the individual's constitutional right to vote," the judges wrote. They cited an argument made by the state legislature, which found that voter ID laws "have historically been used to disenfranchise low-income voters, voters of color, voters with disabilities and senior voters."

Such disenfranchisement, they wrote, was a matter of statewide concern.

Huntington Beach is now barred from implementing its voter ID requirements in future city elections. The law, which applied only to voters who show up to vote in-person, was aimed at cutting down on voter fraud - something conservatives have long argued is an ever-present danger.

Bixby, in a written statement, praised the ruling, and called the whole affair "a huge waste of taxpayer money," having spent "unknown hundreds of thousands in defending this pointless law."

Amongst coastal cities in California, Huntington Beach stands out for its Republican leanings and enthusiasm for policies championed by President Donald Trump.

All seven of its city council members are Republican - they call themselves the "MAGA-nificent 7."

For years, the city and the state have volleyed lawsuits back and forth, on such issues as affordable housing, a move to restrict minors' access to "sexually explicit" books in public libraries and the voter ID law. Thus far, the state has ran the tables, winning judgments against Huntington Beach on every issue.

"This is a pattern of the city spending on frivolous litigation, including on housing and the library, and MAGA antics like trying to ban books at the library," Bixby said. "It's time for the Huntington Beach City Council to stop with its MAGA politics of division and do some good for the people of Huntington Beach."

Source: Courthouse News Service