Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation banning local governments from requiring voters to present an ID at the ballot box to cast a ballot – a move that drew backlash Elon Muskwho branded Newsom as “The Joker”.
“Wow, requiring voter ID is now illegal in California! They made it against the law to prevent voter fraud,” Musk wrote on Twitter late Monday. “The Joker is in charge.”
The bill was passed by the California Assembly in August after being introduced by State Senator David Min, a Democrat, at the beginning of the year. Newsom signed the bill into law on Thursday.
Tesla and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk called Governor Gavin Newsom “the Joker” in a post on voter ID requirements. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
The new law was in response to the seaside town huntington beach Passing a voter identification amendment, Measure A, in March with the support of a majority of residents, which would allow the city to require voter identification, expand in-person polling sites and monitor ballot drop boxes in local elections. County election data shows the measure won the election in March with 53.4% approval.
But Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber challenged Huntington Beach’s voter ID law, which would have amended the city charter to allow voter ID requirements until 2026.
In their lawsuit, Bonta and Weber argued that the city’s voter ID law is “unlawfully antitrust and preempted by state law.”
California is one of 14 states that does not require voter ID at the polls, according to National Conference of State Legislatures,
“The right to freely cast your vote is the foundation of our democracy and Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy is contrary to this principle,” Bonta said in a statement earlier this year.
He argued that state elections already include “strong voter ID requirements with strong protections to prevent voter fraud.” He said the new requirements would disproportionately burden “low-income voters, voters of color, young or elderly voters, and people with disabilities.”
AG Garland vows to fight voter ID law, election integrity measures
Newsom signed a bill banning local governments from requiring voters to present an ID at the ballot box to cast a ballot. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
While that lawsuit went through the state courts, Min introduced Senate Bill No. 1174. It passed the state Assembly by a 57–16 vote and the state Senate by a 30–8 vote.
The Huntington Beach City Council placed voter ID on the March ballot after making a series of hotly contested decisions on topics ranging from flying the flag to removing books from the children’s section of the public library over concerns about the appropriateness of the content. The moves were initiated by the politically conservative council majority, which takes office in 2022, and have drawn large numbers of residents to town meetings on all sides of the issue.
Huntington City Attorney Michael Gates said in March that passage of the voter-approved amendment was “not only acceptable” but supported by the state Constitution.
Last week he vowed to continue implementing Measure A.
According to OrangeCountyLawyers.com, Michael Gates said, “That bill makes no sense for the city of Huntington Beach.” “The city is going to move forward with its voter ID laws because it has the constitutional right to do so.”
Musk’s anger is not the first time he has lashed out with newsom,
Musk last month encouraged his 198 million X users to share an AI-doctored video of Vice President Kamala Harris after Newsom signed a bill into law. Banning digitally altered political “deepfakes”.
Musk said he also plans to move it SpaceX to move California headquarters to Texas This comes after Newsom signed a bill into law that would prevent school districts from notifying parents if their child uses different pronouns or identifies as a different gender than school records indicate.
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Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from “Joker”. (AP/Warner Bros. Pictures)
SpaceX owner also said that Democratic states are benefiting Unfair advantage over red states The polls result from illegal immigration because the census is based on a simple count of all residents, both legal and illegal. He said that congressional representation and electoral votes are distributed on the basis of all residents rather than focusing only on citizens.
Musk has often emphasized voter integrity and immigration matters, writing on Twitter in March that “the failure to require photo ID to vote clearly makes voter fraud impossible to prove. That’s why far-right “Leftists Refuse to Require Photo ID to Vote.”
Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
