Another judge considers recall delay

A judge in Monterrey County indicated Friday he would likely postpone the recall election on Voting Rights Act of 1965 grounds. While promising, Ashcroft's justice department could molify the court's concerns by expediting pre-clearance of voting changes in the county (required because of the county's large minority population and history of low-voter participation).

Now, another federal judge in Los Angeles will consider an ACLU request to push the recall election to March 2004.

The ACLU of Southern California and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles today charging that the use of outdated and obsolete "punch card" voting machines, the same machines at the center of the controversy surrounding the contested 2000 presidential election in Florida, will needlessly and unlawfully disenfranchise African-American, Latino, and Asian-American voters in counties where such machines are still in use.

Following the contested presidential election of 2000, the ACLU-SC and the ACLU-NC filed suit against the state of California, claiming that use of punch card machines in some counties violated the constitutional principle of equal protection and the Voting Rights Act. The state entered into a consent decree, whereby it agreed to replace all "punch card" voting machines in use by the March 2004 primary election.

This lawsuit is generally considered the strongest case against an October election.

Posted August 18, 2003 09:52 AM | Comments (61)