Huntington Beach officials proclaimed victory Friday when an Orange County judge ruled that the city’s new voter ID law was legal, a setback for the California attorney general’s office, which warned that voter ID could soon throw the city’s 2026 elections “into chaos.”

In the March primary election, Huntington Beach voters approved adding language to the city’s charter to start using voter ID in city elections starting in 2026. Earlier this month, voters also elected a city clerk who campaigned on the promise of making sure voter ID requirements are put into practice.

The state responded by suing the city in April, calling voter ID unlawful and saying it would undermine the constitutionally protected right to vote.

The ruling issued Friday isn’t likely to end the dispute. The state still can amend its lawsuit, and during oral arguments on Thursday the lawyers and Judge Nico Dourbetas acknowledged that no matter how the case plays out in trial court it was surely headed for appeals.

Still, Dourbetas ruled in favor of the city’s legal objections to the state’s lawsuit.

“The City’s Charter is permissive … and thus currently presents no conflict with state elections law,” Dourbetas wrote in his ruling.

Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark celebrated the ruling as a successful defense against “attacks by Governor (Gavin) Newsom and the State.” But she, too, acknowledged the legal fight is far from over.

“We will not back down and will continue to fight for the City,” Van Der Mark said in a prepared statement.

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the ruling is a “black eye for the state of California” and has proven that the state was too overconfident.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said in a prepared statement: “The court’s decision does not address the merits of the case. We continue to believe that Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy clearly conflicts with state law, and will respond appropriately in court.”

Michael Cohen, an attorney for the state, said Thursday that the city’s voter ID law could disrupt planning and executing the 2026 elections and that courts must rule quickly to stop it.

Cohen called it an open-and-shut issue that the voter ID law conflicts with state law in several ways, including SB 1174, which was signed by Newsom in September, and the state elections code. The new state law says no governing body overseeing elections in California, including charter cities, can require voter identification at voting centers.

Cohen said state law already defines what a voter needs to show at the polls and spells out a narrow process to challenge a voter’s identity.

A September 2023 letter from the attorney general’s office to the Huntington Beach City Council says a voter whose identity is challenged by an election worker must only take a sworn oath to fix the issue.

“All doubts are to be resolved in favor of the challenged voter,” the letter said. “And any person who illegally casts a ballot is subject to criminal prosecution.”

An elections worker who challenges a voter’s identity must turn over evidence to justify that challenge and contact the election official in charge, which in Orange County would be Bob Page, the head of the OC Registrar of Voters.

Cohen said the city of San Francisco, which recently began allowing noncitizens to vote in local school board races, isn’t being challenged because that new system seeks to expand the electorate.

“It sets a floor, not a ceiling,” Cohen said.

Ceridwen Cherry, legal director of VoteRiders, a non-partisan non-profit that informs people about their area’s voting laws and helps them obtain a voter ID, suggested Huntington Beach’s move could lead to a patchwork system of local voter ID laws, and that such a system could lead to widespread voter confusion.

“If one small jurisdiction is going to have a different requirement than others, it’s going to be really hard to administer,” Cherry said.

Cherry said she wasn’t aware of anywhere in the country with a voter ID requirement specific to a local jurisdiction.

Gates argued that the California constitution grants charter cities complete authority to decide how it elects their local officials.

Gates told the judge that when people vote in person they are asked to provide a name, address and age. The city’s voter ID law furthers that process, he said, and doesn’t limit the electorate.

Lee Fink, an attorney for Surf City Sentinel publisher Mark Bixby, who sued to stop voter ID in Huntington Beach, said the law was a contraction of who gets the right to vote.

Fink said about 10% of the voting-age population doesn’t have an ID. It’s hard for some, he argued, to obtain an ID because it requires time out of the day and costs money. Fink said the state had an overriding concern in this case to ensure people in Huntington Beach have the same ability to vote as in other cities.

Gates said in an interview that the newly elected city council, which will be a conservative 7-0 majority, will give direction to the city clerk’s office for how voter ID should be implemented. City officials have said voting by mail and ballot harvesting would remain.

The voter ID law originated with councilmember Tony Strickland in 2023, who said he tried to pass one every year he served in the California legislature. Strickland is running to return to the state Senate and said Friday he would try to get a voter ID law passed statewide.

But if the legislature doesn’t support the idea, he promised to push for voter ID in California through a ballot initiative. He cited a national Gallup poll that showed strong support for voter ID.

“I think the people of California should have a decision in terms of voter integrity,” Strickland said. “A good chunk of Democrats support voter identification.”

Strickland and other supporters of voter ID have not pointed to any instances of voter fraud in Huntington Beach.