The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to allow a city to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, striking down a law that had taken effect after the city’s voters approved it nearly two years ago. But the issue may soon be before voters statewide.

The March 2024 ballot measure in the Orange County coastal community of Huntington Beach required in-person voters to display a photo ID, while mail-in voters had to provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or driver’s license. Similar requirements are in effect in 30 states and are also part of President Donald Trump’s agenda to combat alleged voter fraud.

But California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature promptly passed a law prohibiting local governments from imposing their own voter identification requirements. A state appeals court then ruled last November that access to the polls was an issue of state law and not local regulation and ordered the city to halt enforcement of its ID mandates. That ruling became final Wednesday when the state’s high court unanimously denied review of an appeal by Huntington Beach.

In upholding a challenge to the local law by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana said measures like the Huntington Beach law could discourage qualified voters – particularly “low-income voters, voters of color, voters with disabilities, and seniors” – from turning out.

“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,” said the panel of Justices Joanne Motoike, Maurice Sanchez and Thomas Delaney. All three were appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Permitting the City to make its own rules, in violation of the state Elections Code, would upset the state’s delicate balance,” they wrote.

But that balance could be undone by an initiative being circulated for the statewide ballot in June and would amend the California Constitution to require all voters to present official identification at the polls or with mailed ballots. Its proponents include state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, a former mayor of the Orange County community, and Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego.

The measure’s sponsors say they have already collected more than 1 million signatures from members of the public. They need 874,461 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Trump has claimed, without evidence, that fraudulent voting by undocumented immigrants and other unqualified or nonexistent registrants is widespread and cost him the 2020 presidential election. After the Los Angeles wildfires last year, he threatened to withhold federal disaster funds to California unless it imposed voter-ID requirements. Trump and the Republican-led Congress have still not signed off on the aid.

The voter ID case is Bonta v. Huntington Beach, No. S294368.

This article originally published at California Supreme Court strikes down Huntington Beach voter ID law.