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September 15, 2003
California's Recall Election Is Postponed
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court postponed California's Oct. 7
gubernatorial recall election, ruling the historic vote cannot proceed as
scheduled because some votes would be cast using outmoded punch-card ballot
machines.

In what was the last of about a dozen legal challenges to the attempt to
unseat Gov. Gray Davis, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said Monday it is unacceptable that six counties would be using outdated
punch-card ballots, the type that sparked the "hanging chads" litigation in
Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

The appellate panel agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union that the
voting machines were prone to error and that Davis' fate could be decided
later. By that time, the counties have promised to replace their punch-card
machines under a court order in separate litigation.

The counties include the state's most populous region, Los Angeles, in
addition to Mendocino, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Clara and Solano. They
represented 44 percent of the state's registered voters during the 2000 election.

State officials, who conceded in court documents that the punch-card voting
mechanisms are "more prone to voter error than are newer voting systems," were
likely to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor
of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.

It was not immediately clear how the decision would impact the campaign in
California's first voter-driven election to unseat its governor. The court
withheld ordering the immediate implementation of its decision, allowing a week for
appeals to the Supreme Court.

One possibility is that the 9th Circuit, the nation's largest and most
liberal federal appeals court, might move the election to the next regularly
scheduled primary, on March 2.

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