{
  "id": "RS21635",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RS21635",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 104527,
      "date": "2003-10-03",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-08T14:37:02.228544",
      "title": "Punch-Card Voting Systems and the California Gubernatorial Recall: Overview of Appellate Court Decisions",
      "summary": "On September 23, 2003 an eleven member panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth\nCircuit\nunanimously reversed the decision in  Southwest Voter Registration Education Project v.\nShelley  in\nwhich a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had ordered the California gubernatorial recall\nelection postponed. The  en banc  panel determined that the plaintiffs had not shown a\nstrong\nlikelihood of success on the merits of their argument that holding the recall election on October 7,\n2003 would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because voters in counties\nthat use error prone punch-card machines would have a comparatively lesser likelihood of having\ntheir votes counted than voters in counties that use other technologies. The  en banc \ncourt determined\nthat at the current time, it is \"merely a speculative possibility\" that a denial of the right to vote will\ninfluence the result of the election. In the earlier three-judge panel decision, the court had agreed\nwith the plaintiffs, relying on the 2000 Supreme Court decision  Bush v. Gore,  that using\nerror prone\npunch-card voting machines in counties that included forty-four percent of registered voters in\nCalifornia would unconstitutionally disenfranchise voters in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. \nPlaintiffs have stated that they will not appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result,\nthe California gubernatorial recall election is scheduled to occur on October 7, 2003.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}