The Ninth Circuit's decision to delay the CA election

Posted on September 18, 2003 by Ampersand

This op-ed in the LA Times, by one of the lawyers who was on the winning side in the Ninth Circuit’s decision to delay the recall election, has some pretty good stats explaining why the decision mattered..

Experts estimate that 40,000 votes would not be counted with punch-card machines that otherwise would be tallied in the recall. This, many believe, would be larger than the likely margin of victory in the election.

Additionally, minority voters would be disproportionately affected, because the counties using punch-card machines have a larger percentage of racial minorities than counties using more advanced technology.[…]

The 9th Circuit properly held that it would violate equal protection for voters in these counties to have a far greater chance that their votes would not be counted just because they lived in their counties.

Let’s hope this is the start of a trend… it would be bad news for conservatives if ballot machines in minority areas actually counted every vote.

For more on this subject, check out this good American Prospect gloat-fest by Sean Willentz..

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