Local election officials are telling the more than 6,000
residents who have already received their absentee ballots for the
recall to go ahead and vote.
Despite Monday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
to delay the Oct. 7 recall election, San Benito County Clerk John
Hodges is advising absentee voters not to stop.
”
For now, it’s business as usual and everyone should just keep on
voting,
”
Hodges said.
Local election officials are telling the more than 6,000 residents who have already received their absentee ballots for the recall to go ahead and vote.
Despite Monday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay the Oct. 7 recall election, San Benito County Clerk John Hodges is advising absentee voters not to stop.
“For now, it’s business as usual and everyone should just keep on voting,” Hodges said.
He said the Secretary of State’s Office will make the final decision on how to respond to the court’s ruling.
“Until the state says halt, we’ll just keep going,” Hodges said.
The County Elections Office has already mailed 6,027 absentee ballots on Sept. 8-10.
“And we are already getting some mailed back to us,” Hodges said.
With that many ballots already mailed out, he said there was no way he could possibly retrieve all of the ballots.
“And what happens if we do get all of those people to stop voting and the decision gets overturned by the Supreme Court?” Hodges said.
He said it was important that everyone who recieves an absentee ballot to fill it out completely and turn it in.
Hodges said his office is attempting to stay in constant contact with the Secretary of State’s Office for changes or other instructions.
Monday’s ruling was the last of about a dozen legal challenges to the attempt to unseat Gov. Gray Davis. Several candidates running to replace him, include Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, action star Arnold Schwarzenegger and conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock.
Davis would probably benefit the most from the ruling if the election were held in March, because the presidential primary is expected to bring a large number of Democrats to the polls.
The appellate court unanimously ruled it unacceptable for six California counties to be using outdated punch-card ballots. Those counties are already under court order to replace punch cards with more modern systems such as touch-screen ballots by the March primary.
The six counties include the state’s four most populous: Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and Santa Clara counties. Altogether, they contained more than 44 percent of California’s registered voters during the 2000 election.
