SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court Tuesday unanimously
reinstated California's Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election, less than a
day after hearing arguments to postpone the historic showdown.
Unless the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web
sites) steps in quickly, the decision means
Election Day is two weeks away.
The 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals (news - web sites)
overturned an earlier decision of a three-judge
panel from the same circuit.
The original panel postponed the election on
whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis (news - web
sites) because six counties would use
outdated punch-card ballots that were the
subject of the "hanging chads" battle in the
2000 presidential election in Florida.
The decision clears the way for a possible
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which
could be asked to revisit its Bush v. Gore
decision in the 2000 election.
The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), which brought the
challenge, said Tuesday it was weighing an appeal to the Supreme
Court.
The appeals court reinstated a ruling by a district court judge who had
refused to postpone the election. The judges based their decision on the
state's constitution, not any precedent set by Bush v. Gore.
"The district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that plaintiffs
will suffer no hardship that outweighs the stake of the state of California
and its citizens in having this election go forward as planned and as
required by the California constitution," the ruling said.
Legal scholars had predicted the outcome. A day after the decision
delaying the vote, the court announced it would revisit the case with 11
judges — a sign the court was not happy.
The judges left open the possibility of post-election litigation after the
votes are in and counted.
They said the ACLU is "legitimately concerned that use of the punch
card system will deny the right to vote to some voters who must use that
system. At this time it is merely a speculative possibility, however, that
any such denial will influence the result of the election."
Davis, a Democrat, has been dogged by his handling of the state's ailing
economy. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is running as a fallback Democratic
candidate if voters oust Davis, and Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger
and state Sen. Tom McClintock are among 135 candidates also
campaigning for Davis' job.
Some observers thought a delay in the recall vote would have benefited
Davis by allowing voter anger over the state's problems to cool, and
because many Democrats would be attracted to the polls for the
presidential primary if the recall election were moved to March.
But even Davis sounded fed up last week with the lengthy process,
saying Friday: "My attitude is, let's just get it over with, let's just have
this election on Oct. 7, put this recall behind us so we can get on with
governing the state of California."
The 11 judges of the 9th Circuit heard oral arguments in the case
Monday afternoon.
Lawyers for Secretary of State Kevin Shelley urged the panel to overturn
the three-judge panel. They said the California constitution requires recall
elections to be held no later than 80 days after enough signatures of
registered voters are gathered. They also said the vote should go on
because more than 600,000 absentee ballots had been turned in.
The counties whose voting machinery prompted the litigation are Los
Angeles, Mendocino, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Clara and Solano.
They represent about 40 percent of the state's registered voters.
Noting the uproar over the 2000 presidential election, the three-judge
panel had ruled that an Oct. 7 recall vote would be a "constitutionally
infirm election" and that not stopping it now would pave the way for
"bitter, post-election litigation over the legitimacy of the election,
particularly where the margin of voting machine error may well exceed
the margin of victory."
Agreeing with the ACLU, the opinion often cited Bush v. Gore, the
case in which the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Florida's presidential
recount. The high court stopped it because Florida lacked uniform
standards on how to actually recount the votes — such as what to do
with "hanging chads," the judges said.
As the appeals court mulled its decision, the GOP congressman who
bankrolled the effort urged either McClintock or Schwarzenegger to
drop out.
Rep. Darrell Issa (news, bio, voting record) said Monday that if both
leading GOP candidates remained on the ballot, he would urge voters to
vote no on recalling Davis because a yes vote would assure a victory
for Bustamante. |
