Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

California Recall: Court to Review Case Next Hour

Aired September 22, 2003 - 15:01   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: One hour from now, 11 federal appeals court judges in San Francisco take on the strange case of the California recall, an election without a certain date. And with just two weeks and a day before an originally scheduled vote, there isn't much time to waste.
CNN's Bob Franken is outside the courthouse.

Bob, what do we look for in the next hour, and when do we think they're going to make a decision?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're going to make a decision pretty quickly, which, of course, is almost a contradiction when it comes to the appeals court. But just as a reminder that this has got the echoes of the Bush versus Gore decision in 2000 still resonating. The person who is going to be arguing half the argument for the ACLU position that the election should be delayed is Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe. You'll recall that he was the lead counsel in the losing effort in the effort to get Albert Gore elected president and the whole battle over the Florida recount. He'll be joining forces with the other ACLU attorney and, of course, will be arguing against the Secretary of State who is represented by the California attorney general's office and an attorney for Ted Costa who is the one who initiated the recall.

The arguments are now familiar. The ones who want to cancel the election say that because six of the counties in California still use the discredited hanging chad punch card ballots that their residents do not get the equal protection that residents in the other counties get. Meanwhile, those who are saying the recall should go forward on October 7 say Californians have decided they want it to go forward in a lawful way and that should take precedence. They're going to be possibly all kinds of precedence cited. But as I pointed out, probably the most important one is the Bush v. Gore decision, which of course decided Election 2000.

And one other thing, Judy, this is the day that people have to register to vote for the October 7 election, if there is an October 7 election. And this 11-judge panel, which is going to be reviewing the decision that would have delayed the election that was made just a week ago, this 11-judge panel, of course, could have what amounts to the final say-so. Yes, the party, whoever loses, is going to go to the Supreme Court, but most believe this hearing is what's going to decide whether the election goes forward October 7 -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Well, Bob, the very fact that this panel is taking up the matter of what the three judges did helps us know that they could turn it around. But setting even that aside, what is the makeup of this 11-judge panel? Tell us about what they might do.

FRANKEN: Interestingly, 8 of the 11 judges who are on this panel are Democratic appointments. And most people would say, aha, it's going to be typical of the Ninth Circuit, which is the most liberal of the panels around the United States in the appeals court panels, it is widely conceded. However, these eight Democratic appointments, including seven appointed by President Clinton, are considered, to the large part, to be -- quote -- "moderate to conservative" and not as liberal as the three judges who decided that the election should be delayed. There are also three Republicans on the panel, all considered conservative jurists.

Now whether this, in fact, ultimately means that it's going to affect the opinion, one can only speculate. But of course everybody is speculating, but the speculation is the very fact that they decided to hear this and with the makeup of the court that there is going to be a good possibility that the three-judge panel will be reversed and the election would go on.

WOODRUFF: And I notice, Bob, that even one of the judges on that original three-judge panel is himself predicting that it's going to be overturned. So we shall see. All right.

FRANKEN: Right.

WOODRUFF: Bob Franken, we'll talk to you in just about one hour.

Well while the court reviews the recall, California election officials have not been able to sit back and wait.

As CNN's Frank Buckley reports, the election process is moving forward so the state is ready if and when the October 7 vote gets a green light.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ballots are going out, workers are on double shifts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trying to avoid another Florida.

BUCKLEY: The recall election in California is already under way. If there is any doubt about that,...

CONNY MCCORMACK, L.A. COUNTY REGISTRAR: We have received 398,000 applications for absentee ballots.

BUCKLEY: ... spend a few minutes with Conny McCormack. She's the chief elections official for Los Angeles County. McCormack showed us some of the hundreds of workers who have been preparing for October 7 since July 24 when the election was called. L.A. County has already spent more than $7 million, money that can't be recovered if the date of the election is changed.

MCCORMACK: This is just a vast waste of the resources and I think the public's confidence in the electoral process. BUCKLEY: Because as ballots go out, votes are already coming in. In this county, these are the absentee ballots that have already been cast.

(on camera): These are thousands of ballots?

MCCORMACK: Fifty-seven thousand so far.

BUCKLEY: And they're ready to be counted?

MCCORMACK: And they're coming in 10,000 or more a day.

BUCKLEY: What happens to these ballots?

MCCORMACK: That will be up to the court to decide, but each one of those represents a person who thought they were counting their -- casting their ballot in this election.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): California's Secretary of State says a half million absentee ballots have already been cast statewide. If the election is postponed, no one knows just what will happen to those votes.

KEVIN SHELLEY, CALIF. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the effect on this election, if we have to redo all of this, is devastating, which is why I think it's so important that this election move forward on October 7.

BUCKLEY: The Ninth Circuit judges who postponed the election until March cited the error rate of punch card machines in their decision. But McCormack and other elections officials in California dispute the error rate. And they point out that if they have to start all over again for a March election, there could be even more confusion because, for one, the new voting system planned for the March primary can't handle the number of contests and candidates that would appear on the ballot if the recall election is part of it.

JENNIFER COLLINS, L.A. CO. ASST. REGISTRAR: It has eight pages and that's for this election. It has eight pages. We can -- we can accommodate up to 10 or 12. Well, if the primary usually takes 10 to 12 pages and this took 8, we're overboard.

BUCKLEY: But it will be judges, not elections officials, who will decide if October 7 is Election Day, who will decide if all the work that's gone into preparing California will have to happen all over again.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 September 22, 2003 - 15:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: One hour from now, 11 federal appeals court judges in San Francisco take on the strange case of the California recall, an election without a certain date. And with just two weeks and a day before an originally scheduled vote, there isn't much time to waste.
CNN's Bob Franken is outside the courthouse.

Bob, what do we look for in the next hour, and when do we think they're going to make a decision?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're going to make a decision pretty quickly, which, of course, is almost a contradiction when it comes to the appeals court. But just as a reminder that this has got the echoes of the Bush versus Gore decision in 2000 still resonating. The person who is going to be arguing half the argument for the ACLU position that the election should be delayed is Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe. You'll recall that he was the lead counsel in the losing effort in the effort to get Albert Gore elected president and the whole battle over the Florida recount. He'll be joining forces with the other ACLU attorney and, of course, will be arguing against the Secretary of State who is represented by the California attorney general's office and an attorney for Ted Costa who is the one who initiated the recall.

The arguments are now familiar. The ones who want to cancel the election say that because six of the counties in California still use the discredited hanging chad punch card ballots that their residents do not get the equal protection that residents in the other counties get. Meanwhile, those who are saying the recall should go forward on October 7 say Californians have decided they want it to go forward in a lawful way and that should take precedence. They're going to be possibly all kinds of precedence cited. But as I pointed out, probably the most important one is the Bush v. Gore decision, which of course decided Election 2000.

And one other thing, Judy, this is the day that people have to register to vote for the October 7 election, if there is an October 7 election. And this 11-judge panel, which is going to be reviewing the decision that would have delayed the election that was made just a week ago, this 11-judge panel, of course, could have what amounts to the final say-so. Yes, the party, whoever loses, is going to go to the Supreme Court, but most believe this hearing is what's going to decide whether the election goes forward October 7 -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: Well, Bob, the very fact that this panel is taking up the matter of what the three judges did helps us know that they could turn it around. But setting even that aside, what is the makeup of this 11-judge panel? Tell us about what they might do.

FRANKEN: Interestingly, 8 of the 11 judges who are on this panel are Democratic appointments. And most people would say, aha, it's going to be typical of the Ninth Circuit, which is the most liberal of the panels around the United States in the appeals court panels, it is widely conceded. However, these eight Democratic appointments, including seven appointed by President Clinton, are considered, to the large part, to be -- quote -- "moderate to conservative" and not as liberal as the three judges who decided that the election should be delayed. There are also three Republicans on the panel, all considered conservative jurists.

Now whether this, in fact, ultimately means that it's going to affect the opinion, one can only speculate. But of course everybody is speculating, but the speculation is the very fact that they decided to hear this and with the makeup of the court that there is going to be a good possibility that the three-judge panel will be reversed and the election would go on.

WOODRUFF: And I notice, Bob, that even one of the judges on that original three-judge panel is himself predicting that it's going to be overturned. So we shall see. All right.

FRANKEN: Right.

WOODRUFF: Bob Franken, we'll talk to you in just about one hour.

Well while the court reviews the recall, California election officials have not been able to sit back and wait.

As CNN's Frank Buckley reports, the election process is moving forward so the state is ready if and when the October 7 vote gets a green light.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ballots are going out, workers are on double shifts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trying to avoid another Florida.

BUCKLEY: The recall election in California is already under way. If there is any doubt about that,...

CONNY MCCORMACK, L.A. COUNTY REGISTRAR: We have received 398,000 applications for absentee ballots.

BUCKLEY: ... spend a few minutes with Conny McCormack. She's the chief elections official for Los Angeles County. McCormack showed us some of the hundreds of workers who have been preparing for October 7 since July 24 when the election was called. L.A. County has already spent more than $7 million, money that can't be recovered if the date of the election is changed.

MCCORMACK: This is just a vast waste of the resources and I think the public's confidence in the electoral process. BUCKLEY: Because as ballots go out, votes are already coming in. In this county, these are the absentee ballots that have already been cast.

(on camera): These are thousands of ballots?

MCCORMACK: Fifty-seven thousand so far.

BUCKLEY: And they're ready to be counted?

MCCORMACK: And they're coming in 10,000 or more a day.

BUCKLEY: What happens to these ballots?

MCCORMACK: That will be up to the court to decide, but each one of those represents a person who thought they were counting their -- casting their ballot in this election.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): California's Secretary of State says a half million absentee ballots have already been cast statewide. If the election is postponed, no one knows just what will happen to those votes.

KEVIN SHELLEY, CALIF. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the effect on this election, if we have to redo all of this, is devastating, which is why I think it's so important that this election move forward on October 7.

BUCKLEY: The Ninth Circuit judges who postponed the election until March cited the error rate of punch card machines in their decision. But McCormack and other elections officials in California dispute the error rate. And they point out that if they have to start all over again for a March election, there could be even more confusion because, for one, the new voting system planned for the March primary can't handle the number of contests and candidates that would appear on the ballot if the recall election is part of it.

JENNIFER COLLINS, L.A. CO. ASST. REGISTRAR: It has eight pages and that's for this election. It has eight pages. We can -- we can accommodate up to 10 or 12. Well, if the primary usually takes 10 to 12 pages and this took 8, we're overboard.

BUCKLEY: But it will be judges, not elections officials, who will decide if October 7 is Election Day, who will decide if all the work that's gone into preparing California will have to happen all over again.

Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com