So a three-judge panel of the ultra-left Ninth Circuit wants to delay the California recall until March, the better to keep Davis and the unions in power. The argument? Punch-card voting disadvantages minorities:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal appeals court postponed California’s Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election, ruling the historic vote cannot proceed as scheduled because some votes would be cast using outmoded punch-card ballot machines…
In other lawsuits, civil rights groups unsuccessfully fought to move Proposition 54 to the March ballot to give minorities more time to study it. In addition, some counties, to cut costs and conduct the election on a hurry-up schedule, were reducing the number of polling places, a move civil rights groups said would disenfranchise minority voters in areas with low voter turnout.
This is an absurd ruling because it fails to balance the real harm done by leaving Davis in power another five months with the imaginary harm of punch-card voting, which we’ve used for years. The first time voters use touch-screen voting, errors will be higher than they’ve been with punch cards, but the Ninth is a little too lame to see that.
It’s an idiotic decision. Read it here.
Nice to know you still care, since you will soon be a resident of the State of Washington and earning your living in the State of Oregon. It’s also good to know that “minorities will be disadvantaged,” since there is no majority in California. White folks became just another minority a few years ago.
Meanwhile, our governments have to stay busy helping corporations export all our good jobs to the foreign countries with the lowest possible wage. Do you think the outcome of the California recall, or the national elections next November, will stop the hemorrhaging of good paying jobs? Will the unions in power be powerless to stop it? Where will the consumer economy (two-thirds of GDP) be if there is no middle class?
Oh, come on. You and I both know that this has nothing to do with disadvantaged minorities. This is the 9th Circuits way of playing politics, and in their reasoning they win either way. As of this morning Peter Costa has indicated that he will appeal to SCOTUS. Here are a few scenarios.
Scenario 1) SCOTUS does not take the take case, election is pushed back to March to coincide with Democratic Primary, possibly giving Davis/Bustamante the edge.
Scenario 2) SCOTUS takes the case and rules in a way congruent to Bush V. Gore in order to not look like hypocrites. The 9th Circuit’s ruling is upheld and the recall is pushed back until March. Result same as above.
Scenario 3) SCOTUS takes the case and overrules the 9th Circuit, thereby contradicting (in the eyes of the Dems who still believe that SCOTUS, acting politically, delivered the election to Bush) their ruling in Bush V. Gore, which makes SCOTUS look just as partisan as the 9th Circuit. The reasoning here is that either way the Democratic Base is energized over perceived Republican Election Stealing.
The 9th Circuit didn’t rule the way it did to protect minority votes. The 9th Circuit ruled that way to put SCOTUS in the hot seat.
As a person who arrived in California only within the past several years, I find the whole thing incredibly amusing. Things were never this screwed up in Virginia…