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Foes of recall lose twice in court In the most important ruling of the day, a Superior Court judge in Los Angeles rejected a request from Davis supporters for a temporary restraining order that would have delayed certification that enough signatures had been collected to put the recall on the ballot. As a result of the ruling by Judge Carl West after a spirited courtroom debate, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley could certify the signatures early enough to force a recall vote as early Sept. 30, far sooner than supporters of the Democratic governor would like. Lawyers said they will file an appeal of the ruling on Monday. In a second ruling, a state appellate court said it will order California elections officials to speed up the counting and verification of signatures. The court said Shelley issued "erroneous" instructions to county elections officials and asked him to produce legal arguments challenging their decision. They set a July 31 date to argue the case. "My intention is to keep the signature verification process as orderly as possible," Shelley said Friday, announcing that he will post recall signature tallies on his Web site, www.ss.ca.gov. Later in the day, Shelley announced that 575,926 signatures on recall petitions have been counted so far, including 33,504 verified as being from registered voters. Nearly 900,000 valid signatures are needed to force a recall election. Recall supporters say they have turned in nearly 1.7 million signatures and expect a much larger tally next week when counties formally report all their numbers. "The people have spoken with their 1.7 million signatures. The courts have spoken with their recent rulings," said Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California, the best-funded recall committee. "It's time for Gray Davis to call off his lawyers and face the voters." Although both court decisions turned on what seemed like fine legal distinctions, both sides said they could have a major impact on whether there is a recall vote at all and when it would take place. Lawyers for groups fighting the recall have argued that many of the signatures on recall petitions were collected improperly or by petition circulators who were not registered voters in California, as the law requires. The governor's supporters have launched a broad legal assault to question the procedures being followed and the way signatures have been collected. Paul Kiesel, the lawyer for a group that has sued to block the recall, said timing is critical. Under a schedule already in place, he said, Shelley will receive the signature petitions from counties on Wednesday and then has 10 days to certify that there are enough to qualify the recall for the ballot, a decision that might not be reversible later. That means a previously scheduled Aug. 8 hearing might come too late to change the decision. "The train will have left the station," Kiesel argued, saying that he was merely seeking to delay the certification to give the court enough to time to consider his challenge to the petitions. A lawyer for the state attorney general, representing Shelley, charged that this was an effort to paralyze the process, but Kiesel shot back. "I want to point out that we are not seeking to bring this to a grinding halt."
But the judge countered that, even if Kiesel succeeds in proving that the petitions were collected improperly, or by unqualified people, the law does not allow him
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