U.S. Review Is Unlikely to Delay Recall Election
The federal government probably has enough time to review election changes for the Oct. 7 recall without causing the vote to be delayed, but some of the changes may have trouble winning approval, experts in voting law said Monday.
Justice Department officials said Monday that they had approved the date of the election but that other issues remained under consideration.
In particular, plans to consolidate polling places in Monterey County could trouble Justice Department attorneys, who have delayed elections for changes in procedures that they felt were discriminatory.
Monterey County is one of four counties in the state in which changes in election practices must be approved by the federal government. This approval, called pre-clearance, is mandated by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in states and counties with a history of low turnout and racial and ethnic discrimination.
A federal judge has given Monterey County until Aug. 29 to win pre-clearance and has stopped the county from mailing out absentee ballots overseas in the meantime. If Monterey fails to get pre-clearance, the entire statewide recall may have to be postponed.
"This is obviously high visibility with significant time pressure and it is coming at a time when the Justice Department is probably not overwhelmed," said Richard H. Pildes, a law professor at New York University School of Law and an expert on the Voting Rights Act. "It is possible, if it gets expedited treatment, that the Justice Department could resolve it in a couple of weeks."
A spokesman for the Justice Department said the amount of time a review takes depends on the nature of the election change. The department is giving the California requests an expedited review.
"Some can take a week or a couple of weeks and others can take a full 60 days," said Jorge Martinez, the spokesman.
For example, the Justice Department approved the Oct. 7 recall date Monday but is taking more time to study changes in polling places. Monterey's application for approval of specific election changes reached the Justice Department on Friday.
Martinez said Monday that the department has not received any requests from California's three other counties that need pre-clearance for election changes -- Kings, Merced and Yuba.
