Judge rejects punch card ballot suit

A federal judge rejected an effort to delay California's Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election because of potential problems with punch card voting machines, as major candidates held carefully staged events to position themselves before voters.

Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, who went on the offensive Tuesday with a speech blasting the recall as a Republican power grab, held a town hall meeting in a Hollywood studio Wednesday. Republican Peter Ueberroth, former baseball commissioner and key organizer of the successful 1984 Olympics, held a lean, straightforward news conference to offer his proposal for economic recovery.

Both were overshadowed by Republican and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's highly anticipated appearance.

Prospects that a court might block the recall dimmed Wednesday after a Los Angeles judge rejected complaints about punch card voting machines and officials in Monterey County, Calif., admitted they could proceed even if not allowed to slash the number of polling places open to voters.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson rejected calls by the American Civil Liberties Union for the vote to be delayed until March, when six California counties that now use punch card machines convert to systems considered more reliable.

"Clearly, the public interests in avoiding wholesale disenfranchisement, and/or not plunging the state into a constitutional crisis, weigh heavily against enjoining the election," Wilson ruled.

Lawyers for the ACLU had argued that voters in six punch card counties - Los Angeles and San Diego among them - would be disenfranchised because the machines are more error-prone than other voting methods.

In San Jose, another federal judge must decide whether to stop Monterey County from reducing the number of polling places from 190 to 86, a move election officials employed to save money and time in the shortened election-planning period.

Because of past election problems, Monterey and three other California counties - Kings, Merced, and Yuba - are required under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to apply for approval from the Justice Department before they can make any changes in procedures, from moving polling locations to redrawing precinct boundaries.

Monterey County elections chief Tony Anchundo acknowledged this week that voting in his county could proceed even if Justice officials insisted that he not consolidate precincts.

"Anything is possible with sufficient funds, but it would be extremely difficult to do," Anchundo said.

At an appearance with Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in Santa Monica, Davis said Schwarzenegger's plan remained too short on details.

"Anyone who wants to take my job needs to have specific plans to be elected," he said. "Candidates cannot just have sound bites or rehashed phrases from old movies."

Ueberroth, who has vowed to only serve out Davis' term, said that if he's elected he would cut state spending across the board by 5 percent and bring in $6-billion through a one-time tax amnesty in which people who failed to pay past taxes would get a chance to settle their accounts without penalties.

"I am a businessman. I'm a leader and a problem-solver," Ueberroth said. "I've had some successes and I've had some failures. Fortunately, I've had more successes than failures, and I pay a lot of taxes."

"What am I not? I am not a politician. I'm not good on television, and I can't give you answers in sound bites," he said.

- Information from the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

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