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247 Submit Candidacy Papers for California Governor Race
Aired August 12, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Critics of the California recall ruckus say the campaign has become all Arnold, all the time. But after nearly a week of on-camera campaigning for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has no public appearances scheduled today. Still, the recall madness goes on. The number of candidates who have qualified for the ballot keeps rising, and the lawyers keep wrangling.
Let's check in for the latest developments now with CNN's Bob Franken, who joins us live from Los Angeles - hey, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Well, of course, the recall numbers now stand at well over 100. And what they're doing is certifying close to 200 who have applied to be on the ballot to be possibly elected incase the Gray Davis part of the ballot results in the governor's recall. But while all of that is going on, the American Civil Liberties Union has joined the parade to court with a claim that, because several of the most populous counties in the state of California used the now discredited punch card ballots that were really discredited in Florida, that in fact the voters in those counties will be disenfranchised.
And here's a quote from their petition. "The use of these obsolete punchcard machines will disproportionately disadvantage African-American, Latino, and Asian American voters who primarily reside in the six counties that use the machines without any assurance that their votes will be counted."
And it's not going to be a cakewalk counting the votes anywhere in California. They went amounted to a lotto drawing yesterday to rearrange the alphabet, as they do in California, and ABC has now been replaced at the top of the California alphabet, with RWQ. Those are the three first letters.
And what this means is that the people whose names are starting with those letters get an advantage in one county, but it doesn't apply across the state because they rotate to other 80 counties in California. And in all the counties in California the registrars out there are cringing at the thought of an election on October 7th. Cringing because the ballots are going to be so huge with all of the people who are on that list so huge that, even if things go well enough on Election Day, it will take several days, they say, to come up with a final result.
So it is going to be chaotic. It's going to be -- well, John, it is going to be California-like -- John.
KING: Bob, we're beginning to hear something reminiscent of Walter Mondale to Gary Hart many years ago: where's the beef? Governor Davis asking what does Arnold Schwarzenegger stand for. Bill Simon, the Republican nominee in the last race, saying this should be a campaign of ideas and not star quality.
Any sense of whether Mr. Schwarzenegger is ready to come out with any speeches or key campaign policy papers?
FRANKEN: Well, they say that they're going to, but of course that can be a double-edged sword. The moment that they start making reporters and political experts happy with position papers, they create positions that can be dissected by the very people that they have tried to please. There have been many numbers of political campaigns where the candidate in fact decided to be vegetarian with no beef, and the candidate has won.
KING: Bob Franken, very well put. Bob Franken in Los Angeles, we'll check in with you as the day goes on.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 12, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Critics of the California recall ruckus say the campaign has become all Arnold, all the time. But after nearly a week of on-camera campaigning for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has no public appearances scheduled today. Still, the recall madness goes on. The number of candidates who have qualified for the ballot keeps rising, and the lawyers keep wrangling.
Let's check in for the latest developments now with CNN's Bob Franken, who joins us live from Los Angeles - hey, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello. Well, of course, the recall numbers now stand at well over 100. And what they're doing is certifying close to 200 who have applied to be on the ballot to be possibly elected incase the Gray Davis part of the ballot results in the governor's recall. But while all of that is going on, the American Civil Liberties Union has joined the parade to court with a claim that, because several of the most populous counties in the state of California used the now discredited punch card ballots that were really discredited in Florida, that in fact the voters in those counties will be disenfranchised.
And here's a quote from their petition. "The use of these obsolete punchcard machines will disproportionately disadvantage African-American, Latino, and Asian American voters who primarily reside in the six counties that use the machines without any assurance that their votes will be counted."
And it's not going to be a cakewalk counting the votes anywhere in California. They went amounted to a lotto drawing yesterday to rearrange the alphabet, as they do in California, and ABC has now been replaced at the top of the California alphabet, with RWQ. Those are the three first letters.
And what this means is that the people whose names are starting with those letters get an advantage in one county, but it doesn't apply across the state because they rotate to other 80 counties in California. And in all the counties in California the registrars out there are cringing at the thought of an election on October 7th. Cringing because the ballots are going to be so huge with all of the people who are on that list so huge that, even if things go well enough on Election Day, it will take several days, they say, to come up with a final result.
So it is going to be chaotic. It's going to be -- well, John, it is going to be California-like -- John.
KING: Bob, we're beginning to hear something reminiscent of Walter Mondale to Gary Hart many years ago: where's the beef? Governor Davis asking what does Arnold Schwarzenegger stand for. Bill Simon, the Republican nominee in the last race, saying this should be a campaign of ideas and not star quality.
Any sense of whether Mr. Schwarzenegger is ready to come out with any speeches or key campaign policy papers?
FRANKEN: Well, they say that they're going to, but of course that can be a double-edged sword. The moment that they start making reporters and political experts happy with position papers, they create positions that can be dissected by the very people that they have tried to please. There have been many numbers of political campaigns where the candidate in fact decided to be vegetarian with no beef, and the candidate has won.
KING: Bob Franken, very well put. Bob Franken in Los Angeles, we'll check in with you as the day goes on.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
