spanner in the works

[rone]

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals "ordered California officials to halt preparations" for the gubernatorial recall election in October.

So, the system that elected Davis is now no longer good enough to recall him. Wacky. The 9th is going to catch a lot of shit from conservatives over this, and in this case, they probably deserve it.

Comments

[kodi]

Do they have to wait until the recall succeeds to start collecting signatures to replace whoever replaces Davis? Just curious.

[huaman.livejournal.com]

The was-scheduled-for-October-7 special election has 2 recall-related parts and 2 propositions on it, if I'm correctly remembering my sample ballot.

RECALL:
Part 1: Recall Gray Davis? yes/no
Part 2: Which of 167 (or however many it is) candidates should be govenor if Part 1 = yes
PROPOSITIONS:
Prop 53: yes or no (this one is the obfuscated-language budget-related what to do with infrastructure things that aren't schools or roads)
Prop 54: yes or no (this is the one getting attention, which is seeing debate from the pro-affirmative-action-in-its-current-incarnation vs. anti-race-based-special-interest-groups camps).

So, what this means is, supposing that the special election actually gets around to happening one of these days, I'll vote yes or no on the propositions, yes or no on the recall, and then for whatever candidate I'd like to see be governor assuming the recall passes. This is where you get Democratic leaders arguing about whether people should vote NO on the recall, then for $democratic_candidate, or just NO on the recall and leave the candidate for governor blank. I think the leading Democratic stance at present is "No on the recall, Bustamante for governor if the recall succeeds." The prevailing Republican sentiment, of course, is YES on the recall, and either Schwarzenegger or McClintock for governor if the recall succeeds.

I think. I'm at least reasonably sure that's where things stood this morning when I was driving to work.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely convinced that you've actually answered his question.

Wheeee!

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

And the circus continues.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I think the recall is a stupid idea, and postponing it is also stupid, but I have to agree with the principle behind the postponement: The process in some districts would be dependent on punchcard ballots, a voting system decertified by the state (which I take means those who use them are not legally registering votes, or not registering legal votes - in either event, an even uglier and more prolonged court battle if those votes are challenged).

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. Here (http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6779192.htm)'s an article from the San Jose Mercury News:

The judges concluded Monday that 44 percent of voters would cast their ballots using an "antiquated" balloting system that former Secretary of State Bill Jones had deemed "unacceptable" and had banned for use in future elections.

I guess that changes my tune a bit. I wonder what the original timeline was to have those things replaced.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

Great quote (found in Tom Tomorrow's blog (http://www.thismodernworld.com/)):

'"The fight has just begun," [Attorney representing recall leader Ted Costa, Charles] Diamond told Reuters. "If (punch cards) were good enough to elect our president we don't see why not they're not good enough to elect our Governor."'

Unfortunately it looks like it's been edited out of the news story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20030915/ts_nm/politics_california_dc) since its first posting.

[sambushell.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised by this outcome, but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. Once you've decided that a certain set of voting equipment is defective and you're not going to use it any more, you kinda oughta stick with that decision.