California lawmakers have passed a law prohibiting voter identification requirements in local elections, as Democrats aim to strengthen their supermajority in the state.
Senate Bill 1174 was passed after the City of Huntington Beach, one of the few Republican-leaning areas in Los Angeles, approved a voter ID requirement for municipal elections starting in 2026.
Unfortunately for the residents of Huntington Beach, this legislation will override their recently enacted voter ID policy.
State Senator Dave Min, the author of the bill, stated that “an overwhelming body of evidence proves that voter ID laws only subvert voter turnout and create barriers for law-abiding voters.”
“To register to vote in California, voters are already required to provide their driver’s license number, California identification number, or the last four digits of their social security number,” he continued.
Republican State Assemblymember Bill Essayli proposed an amendment to the bill that would have explicitly prohibited illegal immigrants from voting, but it failed to pass.
Noncitizens are already allowed to vote in local school board elections in San Francisco, while in the nearby city of Santa Ana, a proposed ballot measure could extend voting rights to noncitizens in all municipal elections, not just school board elections.
According to reports, Democrats are leveraging relaxed voter ID laws to encourage illegal immigrants and other non-citizens to vote for their candidates.
Meanwhile, Republicans nationwide have made efforts to pass legislation requiring voter ID, but these attempts have been consistently blocked by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
In April, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Huntington Beach over the ordinance, arguing that the state already has “robust voter ID requirements with strong protections to prevent voter fraud, while ensuring that every eligible voter can cast their ballot without hardship.”
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