Still No Clear Indication on Recall Delay

Federal appeals court judges sparred with a constitutional scholar today about how the Bush versus Gore ruling that ended the 2000 presidential election applies to problems with punch-card ballots.

Judge Alex Kozinski says there isn´t a “Bush versus Gore problem” in California. Kozinski argues that California has the vote-counting standards Florida lacked in 2000. But Harvard Law scholar Laurence Tribe, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, says “it´s a worse problem.”

Tribe added that under Bush versus Gore, punch-card ballots “are not lawful to use” no matter how uniformly they´re counted. After a bit more than one hour of arguments, there was no indication when the court will rule on whether postponement of the October seventh recall election will stand.

A three-judge panel ruled last week that parallels between the recall case and the Bush versus Gore ruling are clear. It repeatedly citing the Supreme Court´s ruling in tentatively postponing the election to recall and replace Governor Davis until next spring.