MSNBC- Recall election to be delayed

Pete Williams MSNBC ^ | Pete Williams

[Torie]

SCOTUS won't touch it. It is not important enough for them. It is just a state election, and the impact is a one time event. The decision is outrageous however. Suddenly, a vote system that has been around since rocks cooled, now has to be dumped ahead of schedule, because a few dumbass voters just can't hack it. It is an impertinance and an outrage, but then that's our 9th circuit, God bless em.

[deport]

Exerpts from court decision in California recall		Monday, September 15, 2003
(09-15) 19:09 PDT (AP) -- Here are excerpts from Monday's decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which blocked California's Oct. 7 recall vote: * "The origins of the present controversy date to the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, when national attention was drawn to the eccentricities of voting by pre-scored punch cards." * "In this case, Plaintiffs allege that the fundamental right to have votes counted in the special recall election is infringed because the pre-scored punchcard voting systems used in some California counties are intractably afflicted with technologic dyscalculia ... The effect is not trivial." * "Using error-prone voting equipment in some counties, but not in others will result in votes being counted differently among the counties." * "It is virtually undisputed that ... punch-card voting systems are significantly more prone to errors that result in a voter's ballot not being counted than the other voting systems used in California." * "In Bush (v. Gore), the Supreme Court held that using different standards for counting votes in different counties across Florida violated the Equal Protection Clause." * "The district court assumed that the Plaintiffs would suffer irreparable injury, but concluded that the Plaintiffs were not likely to prevail on the merits. It also concluded that the balance of hardships and consideration of the public interest weighed heavily in favor of allowing the special election to proceed ... We respectfully disagree and conclude that the district court erred in its legal analysis." * "The inherent defects in the system are such that approximately 40,000 voters who travel to the polls and cast their ballot will not have their vote counted at all." * "In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months." * "The choice between holding a hurried, constitutionally infirm election and one held a short time later that assures voters that the 'rudimentary requirements of equal treatment and fundamental fairness are satisfied' is clear." * "These issues are better resolved prophylactically than by bitter, postelection litigation over the legitimacy of the election, particularly where the margin of voting machine error may well exceed the margin of victory."

[Scenic Sounds]

Thanks, deport.

Insomniacs can download the sixty plus page opinion here. ;-)

[doug from upland]

This day of infamy has been memorialized in song --- CLICK.

[lawdog]

This is what happens when one politcal party grabs power in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government.

This is what you get when you allow the politicalization of the judiciary to warp justice.

This is what happens when the Fed Courts usurp powers not enumerated to them in the U.S. Constitution via the 14th Amendment... an EXPANSION of judicary powers through convoluted reasoning to rule with sophistic logic citing the infamous "Establishment Clause"..the "Commerce Clause"..Santa Claus or the "whatever we say it means today clause". The Courts claim divine dominion over the States and their People..

The conservatives have allowed the liberals to apply a PC ideaology litmus test which results in the appointment of the new royal branch of government the "judicial legislature" whose elite members are annoited for life just like a king.The Republic is dead long live the Republic.

[Torie]

SCOTUS did NOT rule that there was an equal protection problem with different counties using different types of voting equipment. They ruled that not having a uniform standard for counting ballots once cast (hanging chad, dimpled chad, etc) violated equal protection. The 9th circuit is mischaracterizing the SCOTUS opinion. Some would say they are lying.

[eldoradude]

Today's disenfranchise brought to you by the Calestinian Liberalization Borganization.

[lawdog]

P.S. Is there any doubt why the judiciary has largely grown hostile towards an honest recognition of the Second Amendment? It's ultimately about POWER.

[singsong]

My thoughts are political. If SCOTUS overturns the 9th, this will give the Dems more ammo to whine...
They'll whine one way or the other.

OTOH, if the 9th ruling stands, roughly two-thirds of voting Californians will be PO'd and feel disenfranchised
They feel that way already. No need to wait for more damage. Besides this decision is legally wrong, given prior elections. The real question is how to impeach incompetent/biased judges?

[lavrenti]

Remarkable act of chaos perpetrated today. Diminished the power of the normal political process greatly. Creates a precedent to nullify elections based on technical issues such as voting machines.

For instance, should this ruling stand, a future court may intrude upon a general election or primary based on the criteria the 9th cited in its opinion.

For a federal court to interpose in the middle of a state election that is constitutionally mandated and has passed every other legal test on such a tenuous gravamen guarantees a total breakdown of the normal political process in the future.

Not to sound dramatic, but this ruling is a divisive as Dred Scott, in terms of its chutzpah and its lack of concern of basic human rights.

[Torie]

I might add that a lot of states have different kinds of equipment between counties. There are lots of equal protection denying elections going on before are very eyes, per the 9th circuit rationale.

[marajade]

Maybe instead of using punch card voting machines we should go to using stone chisels and tablets.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. There has never been equal protection problem with using different types of voting equipment in different jurisdictions. The SCOTUS only said the 14th Amendment comes into play when the votes cast are NOT counted UNIFORMLY. And in Bush the Court certainly never held an election must be completely flawless to be accepted as indicative of the public will. Methinks the Nine Circus went on on a limb and they overlooked the SCOTUS' holding that Bush was NOT to be cited as a precedent for future election controversies.

[singsong]

A business case waits two years to get to a federal court. Criminal cases are also slow, not to mention how soft. The courts are spending all of their time on politics these days.
Appointment for life sucks. It must be changed!

[Fraulein]

Yes, but Jello Biafra wasn't always a Green Party Naderite. If I remember correctly, there was a time when he actually ran as a Republican for mayor of Orange County...

[SierraWasp]

"...Calestinian Liberalization Borganization."

Say! I like that!!! That be perfect!!! You da man!!!

[King Prout]

33. ecclectic. I honestly do not remember much of my pop-music tastes from back then. I didn't really get into modern music until 1988 or so. Thanks for the information.

[SierraWasp]

"...but then that's our 9th circuit, God bless em."

God doesn't have a dang thing to do with 'em and I'm disappointed you find their action acceptable. You have to be a mental contortionist to find ANY socially redeeming feature in their abortive decision!!!

[SierraWasp]

"The Republic is dead..."

Only because the people won't get off their couches, turn off their TV's and restore and revive it!!!