EFL
Voters streamed to the polls Tuesday to make an unprecedented decision: whether to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, whose popularity plunged after the downturn in the economy and burst of the high-tech bubble.
*pop*
Recent polls suggested that a majority of voters favored making Davis the country's second governor to be recalled, and that Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was leading the field of 135 candidates to replace him.
"I'll be back"
Davis' popularity plunged following the economic downturn. Californians face an $8 billion state budget deficit, persistent unemployment and struggling schools.
Not to mention anti-America
The Davis campaign said its internal tracking polls for the past three nights showed voters almost evenly split on the recall issue with just slightly more than 50 percent in favor. Schwarzenegger's campaign, however, said its tracking poll showed the pro-recall side solidly ahead.
Bye-bye, Gray
Both campaign's polls said Schwarzenegger was ahead in the race to select a replacement, leading Lt. Gov. Bustamonte ro'Bustamonte Cruz Bustamante, a Democrat, and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock.
| Surprisingly, "I'd rather be right than governor" McClintock, California Publicans' effort to shoot themselves in the foot, doesn't seem to have thrown the race to Cruz or to The Gray Davis... |
Although more than 2.2 million people had already voted by absentee ballot, officials were expecting lines throughout the state, especially because polling places were consolidated to accommodate the short time officials had to prepare for the vote.
Honesty in California's Governor's mansion is overdue
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley declined to estimate the turnout because this election has no precedent, but his office reported last week that a record number of voters for a gubernatorial race — 15,380,526 — were registered for Tuesday's vote. |