First California 'Votes' Are In
As the push toward an October recall election neared its final legal hurdle Tuesday, embattled Gov. Gray Davis struggled to hang on to ebbing support for remaining in office.
The Justice Department on Monday signed off on the Oct. 7 election to recall Davis in response to warnings from a federal judge in San Jose, who questioned whether the voting rights of minorities would be upheld.
A federal judge in Los Angeles said he would rule Wednesday on separate arguments to postpone the election because some counties will use old punch-card voting machines. The American Civil Liberties Union claims that the machines used in six counties have error rates as high as 3 percent.
California's state supreme court earlier tossed out several challenges to the recall, its timing, or structure. As it stands now, Californians will face two choices on Oct. 7: whether to recall Davis, and if he is recalled, who among 135 candidates should replace him.
With the state cases dead and the federal case nearly resolved, Davis' camp believes his chances of survival hinge on getting Democrats to focus on defeating the recall, rather than backing a replacement candidate.
But that strategy was dealt heavy blows Monday. Among the latest developments:
Many Democratic leaders — including U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer — have questioned the logic of putting all the party's energy into getting voters to turn down the recall question on the Oct. 7 election.
The second part of the recall ballot, they point out, is the replacement question and there is growing anxiety among party stalwarts whether to back Bustamante as insurance in case voters oust Davis.
Perry Kenny, president of the 140,000-member state employees' union, said the group's primary goal is to defeat the Oct. 7 recall. But if the recall succeeds, "we believe that Cruz Bustamante has the experience to serve California."
The debate has sharpened as the latest polls show support for Davis continues to fall while support for Bustamante as his replacement is rising.
Next week, the state's largest labor group — the California Federation of Labor — will hold its election convention. The federation, which is an umbrella group of AFL-CIO unions in California, has so far backed the governor.
The election, just 49 days away, is forcing some counties to make a number of moneysaving changes that until Monday lacked approval from the Justice Department. The legal dispute focused on Monterey County, which plans to cut costs by reducing its usual 190 polling places to 86 and hiring fewer Spanish-speaking poll workers.
Such changes must be cleared by the Justice Department in places like Monterey and three other California counties, which have a history of low voter participation, particularly among minorities. The other California counties subject to the requirement are Merced, Kings and Yuba.
"This is not a problem," Jorge Martinez, a Justice Department spokesman, said late Monday.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose ordered Monterey County not to send absentee ballots overseas as he considers postponing the election. It was not immediately clear how the Justice Department decision on Monday would affect Fogel's order.
In the Los Angeles case, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California says voters in six counties would still be using the error-prone ballots if the recall were staged Oct. 7.
The suit seeks a delay until the next regular election in March, when touch-screen or written ballots will be in place as part of separate litigation arising from the Bush-Gore voting debacle in Florida in 2000.