CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH
2000 MAIN STREET, HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA 92648-2702
GRACEY VAN DER MARK
MAYOR
Office: 714.536.5553
June 5, 2024
Honorable Gail Pellerin
Chair of the Assembly Elections Committee
1020 N Street, Room 365
Sacramento, CA 95814
SB 1174 – Elections: Voter Identification OPPOSE
Dear Chair Pellerin,
California’s Constitution allows cities and counties that adopt charters to control their own municipal affairs and provides that those laws are supreme over inconsistencies. The municipal affairs doctrine grants charter cities broad authority to enact law s governing local matters.
In March 2024, the residents of Huntington Beach voted to update Section 702 of the Huntington Beach City Charter providing for voter identification to protect the City’s elections. The City of Huntington Beach strives to protect its elections, and the provisions of the Huntington Beach City Charter shall prevail over a conflict with the Elections Code.
SB 1174 inserts the State into the City’s municipal, local affairs.
The City respectfully OPPOSES SB 1174.
Sincerely,
Gracey Van Der Mark
Mayor
Cc: Senator Dave Min
Huntington Beach City Council
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 2, 2024
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 18, 2024
SENATE BILL No. 1174
Introduced by Senator Min
(Coauthor: Senator Newman)
February 14, 2024
An act to add Section 10005 to the Elections Code, relating to elections.
legislative counsel’s digest
SB 1174, as amended, Min. Elections: voter identification.
Existing law permits the governing body of a city or district to request that the county render specified services to the city or district regarding the conduct of an election.
This bill would prohibit a local government from enacting or enforcing any charter pro vision, ordinance, or re gulation requiring a person to present identification for the purpose of v oting or submitting a ballot at any polling place, vote center, or other location where ballots are cast or submitted, as specified.
The bill w ould include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of state wide concern rather than a municipal af fair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the line 2 following:
97 line 1 (1) Under existing law, a person is entitled to vote in a local, line 2 special, or consolidated election who is r egistered in any one of line 3 the precincts which compose the local, special, or consolidated line 4 election precinct.
line 5 (2) California ensures the integrity of its elections by requiring line 6 a per son to pr ovide a driver’ s license number , a California line 7 identification number, or the last four digits of their social security line 8 number to register to vote.
line 9 (3) The state has taken further steps to ensure election integrity, line 10 including signatur e verification c hecks, mandatory partial line 11 recounts, and ballot tracking.
line 12 (4) Voter identification laws have historically been used to line 13 disenfranchise low-income voter s, voter s of color , voter s with line 14 disabilities, and senior voters.
line 15 (5) Existing law gives the Secr etary of State jurisdiction o ver line 16 voter-eligibility functions.
line 17 (6) Under existing law, local elections officials are responsible line 18 for supervising voting at the polls.
line 19 (7) Voter identification laws place the onus on the voter to prove line 20 their identity and right to vote , even after voter s have tak en the line 21 necessary steps to pr ove their identity and right to vote thr ough line 22 the voter registration process.
line 23 (8) The implementation of voter identification laws in municipal line 24 elections conflicts with California’ s established, well-balanced line 25 methods of ensuring election integrity across the state. line 26 (b) The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of this act line 27 adding Section 10005 of the Elections Code addresses a matter of line 28 statewide concern rather than a municipal af fair as that term is line 29 used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. line 30 Therefore, Section 2 of this act applies to all cities, including line 31 charter cities.
line 32 SECTION 1.
line 33 SEC. 2. Section 10005 is added to the Elections Code, to read:
line 34 10005. A local go vernment shall not enact or enforce an y line 35 charter provision, ordinance, or re gulation requiring a person to line 36 present identification for the purpose of v oting or submitting a line 37 ballot at an y polling place, v ote center, or other location where line 38 ballots are cast or submitted, unless required by state or federal line 39 law. For the purpose of this section, “local go vernment” means 97 — 2 — SB 1174
line 1 any charter or general la w city, charter or general la w county, or line 2 any city and county.
line 3 SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of line 4 this act adding Section 10005 of the Elections Code addresses a line 5 matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that line 6 term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California line 7 Constitution. Therefore, Section 1 of this act applies to all cities, line 8 including charter cities.
O
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