Morgan Hill – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday the Voting Rights Act does not apply to recall petitions.
The closely watched 14-1 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for two voter-initiated ballot measures in Monterey County – and debunks arguments recently used in a failed bid to sideline Measure A in Santa Clara County.
The high court’s decision reverses an earlier ruling by one of its three-judge panels in a case involving a recall election in Orange County. In that case, called Padilla v. Lever, the panel sided with a group of Spanish-speaking voters who claimed the English-only petitions violated their civil rights. Under federal law, voting materials produced by the government, including ballots and voter packets, must be printed in multiple languages when appropriate.
Worried the panel’s ruling could be overly broad if applied to privately initiated petitions, the full court suspended the decision in April and decided to review the matter.
On Tuesday, the majority said requiring recall supporters to translate their materials “is very likely to have a chilling effect on the petition process.”
Measure A, which would restrict development in some parts of Santa Clara County, qualified for the November election after more than 58,000 registered voters signed a petition.
When opponents asked a judge to block the measure based on Padilla v. Lever, the judge denied the request partly because the ruling in the Padilla case had been vacated.
